GLASGOW, April 26: Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas warned on Saturday of an “extremely difficult impasse” if a peace deal is not reached with Israel before US President George W. Bush leaves office in January.

“If President Bush’s term ends without an accord we will find ourselves at an extremely difficult impasse, and we Palestinians will have to look at what measures we can take if that is the case,” Abbas said on board his flight back to the Middle East which made a stopover in Scotland.

Abbas was in the White House on Thursday to meet Bush who is pushing for a peace deal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before the end of his term early next year.

The Palestinian leader said that Bush “clearly realises that time is short, but he remains hopeful of being able to achieve something”. Bush said after meeting Abbas that a Palestinian state was “a high priority, for me and my administration a viable state, a state that doesn’t look like Swiss cheese, a state that provides hope”.

Abbas has called on the United States to use its influence to implement the so-called “roadmap” for Middle East peace and “achieve Bush’s vision of two states” an independent Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.

In their talks, Abbas said he and the American president clearly stated their positions, and he applauded the Bush administration’s active diplomacy to reach an accord by the start of next year.—AFP