Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Jerusalem Tuesday, ahead of U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to the region.
The two leaders will discuss Israel's settlement building and the Palestinians' demand that the Israeli army refrain from carrying out any extensive military operations in the West Bank.
On Monday, the negotiating teams headed by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and her counterpart in the talks, former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei, met to finalize the agreements on the framework of the negotiations.
According to a report by local daily Ha'aretz on Sunday, negotiations over the core issues - refugees, Jerusalem and borders - will begin after Bush's visit to the region this week, while the remaining issues will be discussed in other committees.
Bush is due to visit Israel and the Palestinian territory on Wednesday and Thursday as part of a regional tour that will cover seven states in nine days, during which the U.S. president is expected to press Israel and Palestinians to accelerate their recently revived peace talks.
Since the Annapolis conference in late November, in which Israel and the PA pledged to strive for a final-status agreement within a year, talks between the two sides have been low-key with no progress evident. The sense of an impasse intensified following contentious meetings regarding continued Israeli construction in settlements and in East Jerusalem.
Source:Xinhua
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