October 22, 2007	Monday	Shawwal 9, 1428

BEN-GURION AIRPORT, Oct 21: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday a US conference on Palestinian statehood would not yield a peace breakthrough as he sought to head off a revolt by rightist coalition partners.

Two right-wing members of Olmert’s coalition have threatened to quit the government if the conference tackles the most sensitive issues, including control of Jerusalem and its holy sites.

Olmert told reporters ahead of a meeting with his cabinet that the conference, expected to be held in late November or early December “is not meant to be an event on its own or an event for an agreement or a historic breakthrough”.

Olmert said before leaving for a visit to France and Britain that the conference in Annapolis, Maryland, should be viewed as a chance for the international community to support statehood negotiations, expected to formally begin after the gathering.

Olmert and Abbas have instructed their negotiating teams to draft a joint document for the conference that addresses so-called final status issues, including borders and the fate of Jerusalem and millions of Palestinian refugees.

The joint document is meant to serve as the basis for formal statehood negotiations which Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said should be concluded by August.

Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the leading far-right member of Olmert’s coalition government, said he warned the Bush administration that Olmert’s government could collapse if talks go too far.

“If, at the Annapolis conference, they deal with the core issues ... there will not be a government and there will not be a coalition,” Lieberman told Israel’s Channel 2 television on Saturday night.

Cabinet Minister Eli Yishai, who heads the ultra-Orthadox Shas party, said he likewise warned US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit last week that the conference “could shake-up the government”.

The collapse of Olmert’s coalition could usher in new Israeli elections and possibly paralyse peace moves for the rest of US President George W. Bush’s term.

Separately, Olmert said news of a Palestinian plot against his life in August had caused him “great displeasure” but it would not derail his dialogue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“We will not ignore this ... I have no intention of stopping the dialogue with the Palestinians,” Olmert told reporters on his plane before leaving for France and Britain.

Israel’s internal security chief told the cabinet on Sunday of a plot to attack the Israeli leader’s convoy en route to a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Jericho, media reports said.

Olmert arrives in Paris later on Sunday and will meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday. On Tuesday he will meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London before returning to Jerusalem.—Reuters