By Renee Maltezou
LAGONISSI, Greece (Reuters) - Palestinian President MahmoudAbbas expressed hope of reaching a lasting peace accord withIsrael before the end of the year, ahead of a meeting withIsraeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday.
Abbas, who joined Barak and Iraqi President Jalal Talabaniat a Socialist International conference in Greece, said hisgovernment would work to keep alive a June 19 truce betweenIsrael and the militant Islamic group Hamas.
The ceasefire was under strain on Tuesday as Israelre-sealed its border crossings with the Gaza Strip after arocket attack a day earlier from the Hamas-controlledterritory.
"Israel will live in an island and sea of peace if Israelwithdraws from Arab and Palestinian territories," Abbas toldthe conference. "The painful truth is that we still have a longway to go to achieve success".
"We hope that before the end of this year, and this is ahope, we can reach a true agreement for the end of theoccupation and violence ... between Israel and Palestine,"Abbas said before his closed-door meeting with Barak.
Efforts to reach a deal by the end of the year have beenhurt by disputes over Jewish settlement building on occupiedland, a corruption scandal that could topple Israeli PrimeMinister Ehud Olmert and violence along the Israel-Gaza border.
Speaking in Israel's southern Negev desert, Olmert saidIsrael had shown patience with the ceasefire, but would reactwith full force if the rocket attacks continued.
Olmert added that, while there has been progress in thetalks with the Palestinians, "all sides need to make an extraeffort".
Abbas's more secular Fatah faction saw an end to 40 yearsof unchallenged leadership of the Palestinian people when Hamaswon parliamentary elections in 2006. Hamas fighters seizedcontrol of the Gaza strip from Fatah in June 2007.
Efforts to reconcile the two factions have so far failed.
SYRIA AND IRAQ
Barak, who also met Talabani briefly on the sidelines ofthe 3-day conference, said that Israel wished to extend itsindirect peace talks with Syria to cover Iraq as well.
He said Iran's nuclear programme was the most seriousthreat to Middle Eastern security and urged the internationalcommunity to increase diplomatic and economic pressure onTehran.
"The Iranian nuclear programme is a challenge to anypossible world order," Barak said. He declined to comment onmedia reports that Israel conducted a military exercise inGreek airspace simulating a strike against Iran's nuclearfacilities.
Greek Defence Ministry sources have said the manoeuvreswere an exercise for training purposes, but concerns overtensions between Israel and the world's fourth largest oilexporter have pushed oil prices to records above $140 a barrel.
Israel, which has not signed the nuclear Non-ProliferationTreaty, is widely believed to have the Middle East's onlynuclear arsenal.
Western countries and Israel fear Iran is seeking to buildatomic weapons, but Tehran insists its nuclear programme isaimed at solving an electricity shortfall.
