Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas began their fresh meeting in Jerusalem on Wednesday noon.
The meeting, at the prime minister's residence, will signal the start of the official negotiating process between teams from both sides towards formulating an Israel-Palestinian declaration of principles ahead of the U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference in November.
According to local media reports, the two leaders will first hold a private meeting and then brief the negotiating teams as to the principles of the negotiations that will take place over the next few weeks, and expected to conclude towards the end of October.
The meeting was to have taken place on Tuesday, but was pushed off a day due to what officials in the Prime Minister's Office described as technical reasons.
There are significant gaps between the two sides' starting positions, which guarantees that the negotiations will be difficult and complicated.
Meanwhile, the U.S. may delay its planned international peace conference until late November, so that Israel and the Palestinians will have more time to formulate a joint declaration.
Source: Xinhua
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