Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Friday in an effort to work out a joint statement for a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference this fall.
Abbas arrived at Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem before 1:00 pm for their second meeting this month.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have so far failed to discuss even the content of the joint document meant to outline a solution to the Middle East conflict and provide the basis of the forthcoming US meeting. The Palestinians want the document to deal with the most intractable problems of the conflict while Israel favours a looser statement.
Olmert himself sought to lower expectations on Thursday over the US meeting. "We don't want to mislead anyone that Annapolis is the event that would conclude peace between us and the Palestinians. We are not there yet," he told Jewish fundraisers in Jerusalem on Thursday.
After Olmert and Abbas concluded their meeting, official sources told ynet the meeting was "warm and very positive." Olmert also promised Abbas that Israel would not cause a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, despite its declared intention to carry out limited power cuts to the coastal territory, in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.
According to the AP, Olmert made the pledge over a working lunch with Abbas, a government official said.
