Across Asia: Palestine

Bush invites Abbas to talk

US President George W. Bush has invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House in early May for talks aimed at advancing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said yesterday.

Abbas has been invited around May 1 though the details of the visit are still being worked out, Johndroe told reporters on Air Force One as the president was en route to Ohio to deliver a speech on the Iraq war. Aides to Abbas said on Wednesday the Palestinian leader had been invited on April 24.