Hours before the opening of a high-stakes international conference on the Middle East, President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed hope Monday that peace finally could be achieved. A senior member of the Palestinian delegation said an elusive joint statement on the contours for future talks was within reach.
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''I'm looking forward to continuing our serious dialogue with you and the president of the Palestinian Authority to see whether or not peace is possible,'' Bush said after meeting with Olmert in the Oval Office ahead of the summit, set to be held on Tuesday at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also attended the meeting.
Bush is scheduled to hold a similar meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later in the day.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Olmert said the international support from the Bush administration and also presumably from the Arab nations that have also agreed to endorse the conference - ''is very important to us'' and could make all the difference.
''This time, it's different because we are going to have a lot of participation in what I hope will launch a
serious process negotiation between us and the Palestinians,'' he said, referring to the talks expected to begin in earnest after this week's US-hosted meetings. ''We and the Palestinians will sit together in Jerusalem and work out something that will be very good.''
Leaders take questions before meeting (Photo: AP)
After months of trying to forge a joint outline, Israel and the Palestinians have made an eleventh-hour push in recent days to come up with a statement in time for the conference.
It is to be the first time that Israel, a large group of Arab states and international envoys from around the
world sit down together to try to relaunch a peace process. Later Monday, the conference gets underway with a dinner at the State Department.
''We will reach a joint paper today or tomorrow,'' said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Abbas. ''There is a persistent American effort to have this statement.''
Roni Sofer contributed to this report from Washington
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