Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are working on preparing a document that would tackle final status issues before a fall summit called by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Abbas told a news conference in Ramallah with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan that a joint Israel-Palestinian committee has been formed and begun working on preparing a draft, or "a declaration" as called by the Israelis.
Bush called for a Middle East peace summit to be held next month to agree upon the outlines of final status talks that are supposed to end up with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Talks kicked off on Monday between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators for the first time since 2000 to prepare for a joint document before both join the fall summit in the United States.
"We have to put out things positively and optimistically by heading towards resolving all outstanding issues with Israel," said Abbas. "We have got to do so, because it's so important, in order to see the peace summit succeed."
Palestinian observers said that this time, the Israeli and the Palestinian negotiators have to agree on the final status issues, mainly, Jerusalem, refugees and the borders of the independent Palestinian state.
"We have to agree on all these issues, either in the document that both are working on, or after holding the summit in the United States," said Abbas.
Meanwhile, Abbas announced that he has received an official invitation by Babacan to visit Turkey, which he accepted, adding that he would visit Turkey before heading for the United States for the summit next month.
Babacan told reporters that his country supports ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a sovereign independent Palestinian state.
Source: Xinhua
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