October 09, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 26, 1428

JERUSALEM, Oct 8: Top Israeli and Palestinian officials met on Monday to draft a joint statement to be presented at a US-sponsored peace meeting next month, a senior Israeli official said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, who have held four face-to-face meetings in the past two months, last week instructed the negotiating teams to begin work on the document.

The two teams met on Monday evening in Jerusalem, the official said.

But following the latest Abbas-Olmert encounter, the two sides remain divided on what they should agree on before the November conference, which is expected to be held in Annapolis, Maryland.

The Palestinians want a detailed agreement and a timeframe for implementing solutions to the thorniest problems of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict – borders, refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

The Israelis nevertheless want a more vague document that will not touch on the core issues which they want to address during bilateral talks following the international conference.

Earlier on Monday, Olmert vowed to push on with the revived peace process, although admitting that a peace deal was still distant.

“The road towards an agreement is still long and filled with hurdles and difficulties,” he said in a speech at the opening of the winter session of the Jewish state’s parliament.—AFP