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US says Mid-East peace on track | US says Mid-East peace on track |
(about 2 hours later) | |
The US secretary of state has said the Middle East peace process is "moving in the right direction" following talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. | The US secretary of state has said the Middle East peace process is "moving in the right direction" following talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. |
Condoleezza Rice said she fully believed a final status agreement was possible before President George W Bush leaves office in January 2009. | |
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he hoped for a deal this year. | |
Campaigners have accused the Israeli government of failing to halt new Jewish settlements in the territories. | |
Peace Now, an Israeli group, said construction had continued in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since November's Annapolis meeting in the US, which relaunched the peace process. | |
It said there was now almost nothing left of a promise to freeze settlement construction but the Israeli government denies it has ever given such a promise. | |
'Impressive work' | 'Impressive work' |
Ms Rice was speaking after meeting Mr Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, in the Jordanian capital, Amman. | |
OBSTACLES TO PEACE class="" href="/1/hi/world/middle_east/6666393.stm">History of negotiations class="" href="/1/hi/world/middle_east/6668603.stm">Jerusalem class="" href="/1/hi/world/middle_east/6666495.stm">Water class="" href="/1/hi/world/middle_east/6689355.stm">Refugees class="" href="/1/hi/world/middle_east/6669545.stm">Borders and settlements | |
Earlier, she met the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, in Jerusalem. | |
She also held three-way talks with the top Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qurei, and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. | |
Ms Rice told reporters she was impressed by the work which had been done since the peace process was relaunched at Annapolis in November. | |
Mr Abbas said he was confident a comprehensive peace could be achieved this year. | |
"We, the Israelis and the Americans and all the concerned parties in the region, are working to achieve this," he added. | "We, the Israelis and the Americans and all the concerned parties in the region, are working to achieve this," he added. |
He said he was next due to meet Israel's prime minister on 7 April. | |
Mr Abbas broke off negotiations last month during an Israeli military offensive that killed more than 120 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. | |
Israel and Mr Abbas's Palestinian Authority earlier "agreed on concrete steps to implement the roadmap" and ease Palestinians' lives in the West Bank. | |
'No violation' | |
Peace Now warned the Israeli government it was repeating one of its "worst mistakes" by approving a surge of construction in the past five months, with 946 homes planned in the West Bank and at least 750 homes in East Jerusalem. | |
But Mr Olmert said that "all the reports of dramatic construction projects in the [Palestinian] Territories" were untrue. | |
"And it's not true that we're building in violation of commitments that were made," he told a meeting of his Kadima Party. | |
Mr Olmert said his government would continue to authorise construction work in the occupied areas it wanted to keep in any final peace agreement. | |
Later, the Jerusalem municipal authority announced plans to construct 600 new apartments in the contested East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Pisgat Zeev. | |
Ms Rice said the US opposed any settlement expansion. | |
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, settling about 400,000 Jews in the area, including East Jerusalem. Settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. |