Abbas, Olmert to meet Monday By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer
38 minutes ago
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian president and the Israeli prime minister are to meet Monday in the West Bank to try narrowing their differences ahead of a planned peace conference in the United States, a Palestinian official said Saturday.
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Both sides have suggested they are ready to try to sketch at least a partial outline for a peace deal. Palestinian officials said such an outline could be presented to the international conference, which is likely to be held in November.
Despite the political overtures, Israeli aircraft in the Gaza Strip killed two Palestinians and wounded six in an airstrike Saturday on members of Islamic Jihad.
During a recent trip to the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to gauge the support of moderate Arab states for a conference, and was told it must yield concrete results. She has assured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the gathering would have substance.
The Monday meeting will take place in the West Bank town of Jericho, said Abbas aide Nabil Amr.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Saturday night that he would be meeting Abbas soon but staffers would not give a time or place. A meeting in Jericho would mark the first time Olmert visits a Palestinian town as prime minister.
Amr said the two sides need to make progress ahead of the conference.
"(It) should be a meeting of solutions, not negotiations," he said. "We have enough time to work on many issues with the Israeli side ... and so these days should be days of work, so we can arrive at the conference with resolved issues and not issues that require negotiations."
He also said the international conference is likely to be held in New York; other Palestinian officials had only said it would be convened in the United States.
Abbas and Olmert have met periodically in recent months, to improve relations soured by seven years of fighting and to explore ways of resuming peace talks.
In the past week, Olmert said he is ready to discuss issues of substance, signaling a softening of positions. Israel had long insisted that Abbas rein in militants before peace talks resume.
Since the radical Islamic Hamas group seized control of Gaza in June, Olmert has faced international pressure to help shore up Abbas and his West Bank-based government of moderates.
In Gaza, there was more bloodshed Saturday when Israeli aircraft blasted members of the violent Islamic Jihad group near the border at Rafah, killing two and wounding six, the local hospital said. The Israeli military said it struck militants preparing to launch an attack on Israel.
Witnesses said three missiles slammed into two stationary vehicles after sunset. They said explosions kept erupting from one vehicle afterward, suggesting that it carried explosives.
Islamic Jihad said its members were among the casualties, but gave no details. The group said its operatives had fired a rocket into Israel shortly before the airstrike, but it was not clear if they were the same people hit by the Israeli strike.
Israel said a number of rockets were launched from Gaza on Saturday, but there was no confirmation that any reached Israeli territory.
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AP reporter Dalia Nammari contributed to this report.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Abbas, Olmert to meet Monday By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer
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