Israel-Palestine summit ends with vague promise

Jerusalem, Feb 20: Israeli-Palestinian talks hosted by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended with little sign of progress on reviving long-stalled peace negotiations beyond a vague promise to meet again.

The meeting, attended by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, focused partly on a unity deal between the Fatah and Hamas groups that has calmed factional fighting but cast a new cloud over peace prospects.

''All three of us affirmed our commitment to a two-state solution (and) agreed that a Palestinian state cannot be born of violence and terror,'' said Rice, reading out a joint statement after the more than two-hour meeting in a Jerusalem hotel.

She said the two leaders ''reiterated their acceptance of previous agreements and obligations'', including a US-backed peace road map charting reciprocal steps towards a Palestinian state, and that Olmert and Abbas would meet again soon.

A senior US official said the Olmert-Abbas meeting would take place ''within weeks'' and Rice said she would also return soon. An Abbas aide said joint committees would meet in 10 days to prepare for his talks with Olmert.

There was no joint news conference after the meeting and Abbas and Olmert did not appear with Rice when she read the statement.

''It didn't seem like the right way to end this meeting,'' Rice told reporters travelling with her of the decision not to hold a news conference.

When the meeting was first announced last month, expectations were high that it would look at the tough, final issues, such as the status of Jerusalem, the return of refugees and the contours of a Palestinian state.

Rice declined to provide details of the discussions but said they had looked at the ''political horizon'' as well as concerns over a deal Abbas's Fatah group signed with the Islamist movement Hamas to establish a unity government, an accord that fell short of international demands on policy towards Israel.

''I think the real value here was that they sat down here to talk to each other,'' Rice said.

A senior Palestinian official who attended the summit, told Reuters, ''Olmert told Abbas during the meeting, 'you cheated me' by reaching the deal with Hamas. President Abbas responded (by saying), 'you gave me nothing and didn't keep your promises.''' Olmert's office declined to comment.

Boycott:

Olmert said in broadcast remarks to his Kadima party after the meeting that Israel and the United States agreed to boycott the Palestinian government, which has yet to be formed, unless it renounced violence, recognised Israel and accepted existing interim peace accords.

Rice reiterated it was the position of the ''Quartet'' of West Asia mediators trying to restart peace talks stalled for the past six years that these three conditions be met.

''(I thank Washington) for the unequivocal stance that it will not recognise a government that does not accept the Quartet's principles,'' Olmert said of the group composed of the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

He set out additional conditions for an end to the Israeli boycott of a unity government, demanding Palestinians cease rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip and immediately free an Israeli soldier captured in June.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said Rice made clear ''any Palestinian government must accept previous agreements and obligations''.

A boycott by the United States could prevent a resumption of direct aid from Western donors to the Palestinian Authority that was cut off after Hamas defeated Abbas's Fatah movement in an election a year ago.

A top security adviser to Abbas, Mohammed Dahlan, said Abbas would begin a visit to European and Arab countries tomorrow to explain the unity government's position.

''We, Fatah will join this government,'' Dahlan told reporters later on Monday. ''Nevertheless, we will continue to try to convince Israel to end the blockade.'' Speaking in Gaza earlier, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Washington should change its stance because the unity government agenda ''gives a large room for political movement''.

The Quartet is set to meet in Berlin on Wednesday to discuss the Abbas-Olmert meeting and how to deal with the new coalition forged in Mecca, Saudi Arabia this month.

Reuters