Mideast talks agenda still unclear
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ends her visit to the region. Israel and the Palestinian Authority have separate goals for the November meeting.
JERUSALEM — -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that a planned Middle East peace conference must be "substantive" to succeed, but she left the region without giving any sign of progress in setting an agenda.
Rice met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, ending a two-day trip to prepare for the U.S.-sponsored conference in November.
Rice said the Bush administration would work "very urgently" with both leaders to ensure that the gathering in Washington yields progress toward ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rice said it was up to the two leaders and their negotiating teams to come up with a document that could serve as the basis for peace talks.
"A successful meeting has to be one that is substantive and advances the cause of a Palestinian state," Rice said after meeting with Abbas in Ramallah.
Abbas said he would meet with President Bush next week during the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.
Israel and the Palestinians have conflicting goals for the November meeting, which U.S. officials have outlined vaguely since Bush announced it in July.
Palestinian officials seek an agreement laying out the framework for a peace deal with Israel, including a timetable. Members of Abbas' Fatah faction fear that a conference that does not produce such solid progress would strengthen the hand of the rival Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip and expects the meeting to fail.
Arab regimes, such as that of Saudi Arabia, have said they might not attend if the conference does not tackle core issues of the conflict, namely the borders of a future Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
Israel wants a more general "declaration of intentions." Olmert is concerned that an agreement spelling out what concessions Israel would make in a future peace accord could endanger his coalition. Israeli officials also are leery of striking any deals that Abbas is too weak to uphold.
Olmert's centrist Kadima party fell into internal debate Thursday over reports suggesting he was prepared to cede parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
Speaking before a party gathering late in the day, Olmert did not mention the Jerusalem issue. But he said Israel had a partner for peacemaking in Abbas, a relative moderate whose authority has in effect been limited to the West Bank since Hamas seized sole control of the Gaza Strip by routing Fatah forces in June.
Olmert said a failure to make peace would strengthen radicals in Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank.
The Israeli leader said he would ask his government Sunday to approve the release of an undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners. Israel freed 255 prisoners in July as a gesture to Abbas.
ellingwood@latimes.com
Special correspondent Maher Abukhater in Ramallah contributed to this report.
