VIDEO - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Sunday evening for the second time in one week, following a previous agreement between the two leaders to meet before Abbas leaves for Washington.
The meeting was kept a secret till now as per the Palestinians' request.
The tête-à-tête meeting began at around 5:30 pm at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem and lasted for about an hour. The two leaders discussed different issues raised in the diplomatic negotiations between the two sides, which will be presented to US President George W. Bush by Abbas later in the week.
The Prime Minister's Office chose not to release a statement on the meeting's results, but Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas asked Olmert to agree to an Egyptian initiative to arrange an unofficial ceasefire in Gaza, but Olmert gave no commitment. Israel refuses to deal with Hamas.
The Olmert-Abbas meeting was held several days before the arrival of the White House's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, who will visit Jerusalem and Ramallah.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to visit the region once against after the holiday of Paasover, while Bush is scheduled to land in the Jewish state on May 14.
The Americans have been exerting moderate pressure on the Israelis and the Palestinians to speed up the negotiations in order to reach an agreement on principles by the end of 2008, as was agreed at the Annapolis peace conference .
'Sides' claims won't interrupt talks'
Abbas and Olmert are being discrete about the issues discussed in their meetings. According to the Olmert office, the latest agreement between the two leaders was not to allow the sides' mutual claims to interrupt the negotiations.
The Palestinians have complained about the ongoing construction in the territories, the daily distress in Gaza and the West Bank and Israel's failure to release prisoners. The Israelis have complained about the ongoing terror attacks, including the Qassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and the terror initiatives in the West Bank.
The heads of the Israeli and Palestinian negotiations teams, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, have met frequently over the past few weeks. The two parties have reported of progress being made in the talks, but have failed to report of agreements being reached or of disagreements between the sides.
Olmert and Abbas' meeting on Monday was the first after a seven-week break in light of the terror attack at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem and the IDF's raids in the Gaza Strip.
At the end of last week's meeting ,chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat criticized Israel, saying that the declarations on roadblocks being removed were nothing more than "a public relations stunt."
First published: 15:46, 04.13.8