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M. Continuo

Palestinians say Jerusalem still high on agenda


    By Mohammed Assadi

    RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas has not agreed to postpone talks on the future ofJerusalem, a senior adviser said on Monday, disputing commentsby Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

    Olmert said on Sunday that Abbas had consented to hold offdiscussing Jerusalem until the end of the negotiating process,a move that could anger Palestinians but help the Israelileader hold together his fragile coalition government for now.

    "This is not true at all," said Nimer Hammad, Abbas'ssenior political adviser. "The issue of Jerusalem is afundamental issue and cannot be postponed. The president didnot agree (with Olmert) to postpone it."

    Abbas and Olmert planned to hold talks on Tuesday inJerusalem. They have pledged to meet frequently to help advancePalestinian statehood negotiations that resumed after aU.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference in November.

    The two sides, urged by U.S. President George W. Bush toreach a peace agreement before he leaves office in January2009, have agreed to address core issues such as borders andthe future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

    But in a speech on Sunday, Olmert said the goal of peacetalks with Abbas was to reach an understanding on "basicprinciples" for a Palestinian state by the end of 2008, ratherthan a full-fledged agreement.

    "I don't know if we will be able to reach an understandingwith the Palestinians. I hope we will. We'll do everything inour power to. But we will not start with the issue which is themost difficult," Olmert said of Jerusalem.

    "We will postpone dealing with Jerusalem to the last phaseof the negotiations," Olmert said, stressing that Abbas had"accepted" his suggestion.

    Israel considers Arab East Jerusalem, which it captured in1967 and later annexed in a move that was never recognisedinternationally, as its "indivisible and eternal capital".

    Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of thestate they aspire to establish in the occupied West Bank and inthe Gaza Strip.

    Abbas's Fatah faction holds sway only the West Bank, afterlosing control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas Islamists in fightingin June.

    Olmert's government has already lost one of its right-wingcoalition partners over the peace talks. The ultra-religiousShas party has also threatened to bolt if the negotiationsfocus on Jerusalem.

    (Editing by Samia Nakhoul)