Ehud Olmert, Abbas meet informally in Jordan

Petra, Jordan, June 22 : Jordan's King Abdullah hosted a breakfast today for Nobel prize laureates and other dignitaries including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, officials said.

No formal talks were held in the first meeting between Olmert and Abbas since the Israeli leader took office last month, but Palestinian and Israeli officials said the coming weeks would be dedicated to preparing for such a summit.

''This was a breakfast meeting in which we discussed all the public issues. There is an intention to prepare for our forthcoming meeting as of next week,'' Abbas told reporters afterwards.

Abbas's spokesman said formal talks could take place in the next two weeks, but Olmert made no comment on his way out.

Olmert has pledged to meet Abbas to explore a possible resumption of stalled peacemaking, but has set no date.

He has vowed to press ahead with a plan to reshape Israel's settlement map in the occupied West Bank unilaterally if he concludes the Jewish state has no peace partner. Abbas has called on Olmert to restart peace talks.

Shimon Peres, a member of Olmert's cabinet and a Nobel peace prize winner who was also at the conference in the ancient city of Petra, said it was too early for talks.

''Negotiations must be prepared carefully. If there will be a meeting and nothing will come out of it, it will simply create disappointment,'' Peres, who is Olmert's deputy, said.

Peres said the internal Palestinian situation had to be sorted out first, alluding to the power struggle between Abbas and the Hamas-led government that took office after the Islamist group trounced the president's Fatah faction in January polls.

Jordanian and Israeli officials said the two men had shaken hands at the start of the breakfast. It took place ahead of the conference of Nobel laureates, businessmen and politicians from around the world who were due to discuss Israeli-Palestinian peace, other West Asia issues and global security.

King Abdullah urged the two leaders during the meeting to resume talks on the basis of the internationally backed peace plan known as the ''road map''.

''The King stressed ... the importance of taking measures to consolidate the atmosphere of confidence between the Palestinian and Israeli sides during the coming period as a prelude to the resumption of peace talks between them,'' a palace statement said.

Reuters