Water may not be big hurdle to Mideast peace

The United States Middle East envoy George Mitchell met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, two days after he held talks in Ramallah with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

No details of the sessions have been made public other than the Israelis' desire to move as soon as possible from indirect to face-to-face meetings and the fact that the talks are initially concentrating on the issues of borders and security.

Water was a sub-category of the first topic discussed in peace talks that got underway this week. While the issue will crop up in negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, Xinhua has learnt that it is not likely to be as hotly contested as analysts suggested a few years ago.