Positions clouded as Olmert-Abbas set for meeting
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinianleaders will meet for another session of peace negotiations inJerusalem on Tuesday but conflicting statements by both partieshave clouded the state of progress in the talks.
Disputing comments by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,the Palestinians say they have not agreed to put off talks onthe future of Jerusalem until the end of the process, a senioradviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday.
Officials in the West Bank also responded sharply to thelatest assurance by an Israeli minister, aimed at right-wingersin Olmert's coalition, that the government had plans to presson with building Jewish settlements on Arab land around thecity.
Olmert said on Sunday Abbas had consented to hold offdiscussing any possible division of Jerusalem until the end ofthe negotiating process, a move that could help the Israelileader hold together his fragile coalition government for now.
"We will postpone dealing with Jerusalem to the last phaseof the negotiations," he said, stressing that Abbas had"accepted" his suggestion.
Palestinian spokesmen have repeatedly said postponing talkson Jerusalem would be unacceptable.
"The issue of Jerusalem is a fundamental issue and cannotbe postponed. The president did not agree to postpone it," saidNimer Hammad, Abbas's senior political adviser.
Later in the day, Israeli Housing Minister Zeev Boim toldparliament there were initial plans to build up to 1,000 newhousing units in a Jewish settlement which Israel calls HarHoma, between Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
It appeared to be the latest effort to mollify a right-wingcoalition party that has been threatening to bolt Olmert'sgovernment if he even discusses changing Jerusalem's currentstatus. A spokesman for Boim said no construction was imminent.
Israel considers Arab East Jerusalem, which it captured in1967 and later annexed along with adjacent areas of the WestBank in a move that was never recognised internationally, aspart of its "indivisible and eternal capital".
Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be capital of the statethey hope to establish in the occupied West Bank and GazaStrip.
A 2003 U.S.-backed road map plan for peace laid out byPresident George W. Bush called on Israel to halt allsettlement activity on occupied land and for Palestinians torein in militants. Both sides reaffirmed those commitments whenBush visited the region last month as part of his efforts topush for a deal before he leaves office early next year.
NO SANTA CLAUS
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who leads Israel'snegotiating team told parliament that she was not "givingpresents" to the Palestinians during talks: "I am not SantaClaus or some uncle that is giving out perks," she said.
Livni, who met her Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qurei onMonday, added that some Israelis act "as though thenegotiations are a kind of gift to the Palestinians or apresent to the Americans". She added: "I don't accept that."
She said Israel would continue talking to West BankPalestinians despite militant rocket fire into Israel from theHamas-controlled Gaza Strip, saying it would only help theIslamists, who seized the enclave from Abbas's Fatah in June.
Abbas and Olmert promised Bush they would meet frequentlyto help advance Palestinian statehood negotiations that resumedafter a U.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference in November.
The two sides have agreed to address core issues such asborders and the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
In his 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 the full-fledged agreement that Palestinians have beenseeking.
(Additional reporting by Adam Entous and Ori Lewis inJerusalem, writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Alastair Macdonaldand Mary Gabriel)