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

Olmert also vowed Israel would abide by commitments on settlement activity that it undertook - but has not honoured - under the so-called Middle East roadmap peace plan, largely dormant since its 2003 launch.

"We have committed ourselves under the roadmap not to build new settlements in the West Bank and we will not build any," a senior official quoted Olmert as telling ministers.

"We have committed not to expropriate land and we will not expropriate any. We have committed ourselves to dismantling illegal outposts and we will remove them."

But Olmert appeared to rule out halting expansion of existing settlements - something that the Palestinians have demanded ahead of the peace meeting in the United States.

"Under no condition will we strangle the existing settlements," the official quoted him as saying.

Washington called for the international Middle East peace meeting in July, but up to now no official date and participant list has been announced.

Amid a diplomatic push before the conference, Olmert was to travel to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday for talks with President Hosni Mubarak, a senior Israeli official told AFP.

Washington called the meeting with the aim of jumpstarting peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians after a seven-year freeze, but expectations about its outcome have sunk amid the stalemate between the two sides.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have held intensive talks in a bid to hammer out the joint declaration outlining a solution to their decades-long conflict.

But while they have agreed that the document will address the core issues - borders, the fate of refugees and the status of the contested city of Jerusalem -- they remain at odds over how detailed any declaration should be.

"The main discords right now between us are the timetable following Annapolis for finalising the negotiations and implementing the agreement," a senior Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Palestinians want a three-way committee, made up of Israelis, Palestinians and Americans, to oversee the implementation of agreements, while Israelis simply want a US official to supervise the process, he said.

And there is disagreement over the sequence in which agreements will be implemented.

   1 2   

   1 2