Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that he will hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert soon in an effort to resume the stalled Mideast peace process.

During a meeting with Christian leaders in Bethlehem, Abbas said that his meeting with Olmert will be held next week, without disclosing where and which day their talks would take place.

It would be the first meeting between the two since March 27, when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in her latest visit to the Middle East, announced that Abbas and Olmert had agreed to meet every two weeks.

Abbas said they will discuss ways of reactivating the peace process "in light of the outcome of the Riyadh Arab summit."

During the 19th Arab summit held late March in Saudi Arabia, Arab leaders agreed to reactivate a Saudi-proposed Arab peace initiative.

The Arab peace initiative, which was first approved by the Arab League in its 2002 summit in Beirut, calls for Israel's pullout from Arab land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in return for the normalization of ties with Arab states.

After the Arab summit reactivated the peace initiative, Olmert has said that he is willing to start a dialogue with Arab countries, but will not accept the return of any Palestinian refugees.

Source: Xinhua