PLO welcomes Olmert's remarks on resuming peace talks

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) welcomed Monday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remarks on resuming peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas based on the roadmap peace plan.

"I think this is an important step that it could be a beginning of a serious political process if Israel has true intention to start negotiations," Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of PLO executive committee, told local radio Voice of Palestine.

At a joint news conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday, Olmert said that Israel is willing to negotiate with the Palestinians on the internationally-backed roadmap peace plan, but he did not give a specific date.

The roadmap outlines the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel through bilateral talks.

According to the plan, the Palestinians are required to dismantle militant groups while Israel should freeze settlement expansion in the West Bank.

However, neither side has fulfilled their respective commitment ever since 2003 when the plan was put forward.

Olmert, who has been advocating his so-called convergence plan that projects further unilateral withdrawal, said that he will demand the Palestinians to implement the roadmap peace plan's commitment of disarming militant groups.

In response, Abed Rabbo slammed the Israeli unilateral policy, saying that the main issue, if Abbas and Olmert meet, would be stopping Olmert's plan of unilateral solution.

Olmert vows to demarcate Israeli borders by 2010 by evacuating isolated settlements in the West Bank while keeping major ones with or without talks with the Palestinian side.

Source: Xinhua