(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-20 16:15

JERUSALEM - Israeli and Palestinian leaders failed to reach a breakthrough and agree on a joint statement during talks on Monday, but vowed to keep hammering away at a declaration for a key US peace meeting.

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (R) meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem November 19, 2007, in this picture released by the Palestinian Press Office (PPO). [Agencies]

Ahead of the encounter Israel vowed to stop building new settlements in the occupied West Bank and said it would free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners ahead of the US conference expected next week in Annapolis, Maryland.

The United States welcomed the concessions with State Department spokesman Sean McCormack saying the Israeli steps "are positive confidence-building measures in the run-up to Annapolis."

He added that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke by telephone over the weekend with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Abbas, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met for two and a half hours at the premier's Jerusalem residence seeking to break the deadlock over the statement due to be presented at the US meeting.

The joint declaration is to serve as the basis for final-status negotiations due to kick off after the event.

"Both sides have made some progress on certain issues of the joint statement, but other issues still remain open," a senior Israeli official told reporters following the Abbas-Olmert talks.

"Nevertheless both sides seem ripe to reaching a joint statement at the Annapolis summit," he said, adding that negotiating teams would meet later on Monday to keep hammering away at the document.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters in Ramallah: "There are differences, the meeting was difficult, the differences remain and the teams are convening again tonight."

Ahead of the Abbas-Olmert meeting, the Israeli cabinet approved the release of nearly 450 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to Abbas, a senior official told AFP.

Palestinian government spokesman Riyad al-Malki welcomed the decision, but said it was "insufficient."

Palestinians had requested that Israel free some 2,000 of the 11,000 Palestinian detainees whom it is holding.

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