Abbas, Olmert to discuss principles ahead of conference

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is scheduled to meet Tuesday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his Jerusalem residence. The two are expected to discuss the forming a document of principles ahead of the US-sponsored international conference scheduled to take place in November in Washington.

In the first part of the meeting, the negotiating teams from both sides will meet with the two leaders. Later, Olmert and Abbas will move to the prime minister's private office where they will discuss issues related to the document of principles.

The prime minister is expected to tell the Palestinian president that he hopes to hold two to three more meetings by October, before the Middle East conference takes place, in order to form all the principles and understandings regarding the establishment of two states for two people according to the Road Map.

A senior official at the Prime Minister's Office said Monday, "We are talking about a short document which will be vague enough in order to prevent the process from reaching a dead end, but clear enough in order to move forward."

The official added that the prime minister would be attentive to the Palestinians' requests on security and civil issues. The source clarified, however, that at this stage the Palestinians understood that they would not be able to obtain security control of the three cities they plan to ask for: Nablus, Ramallah and Jericho.

Olmert also plans to express his appreciation for the Palestinian security forces which rescued an IDF officer attacked by local residents after accidentally entering Jenin.

"This is one of those encouraging benchmarks regarding the Palestinian sources and shows that the bolstering moves are indeed working. If such an incident had taken place two months ago, it could have ended in a much more severely," the official said.

Abbas: Some questions yet to be answered

In an interview with Palestinian television, Abbas said that "if the meeting is held many issues will be discussed, including the Palestinian citizen's daily problems, such as the issue of the crossings, the prisoners, the security organizations, the economy and more."

Abbas said that if talks of reviving the Arab peace initiative were to succeed it was imperative that all parties relevant to the conflict participate in the summit - including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

Roee Nahmias contributed to this report