Olmert and Abbas meet under pressure for progress

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met yesterday under pressure to accelerate progress in peace negotiations that would include statehood for the Palestinians.

The talks were launched at a summit in Annapolis, Maryland in November with the goal of a deal before US President George W. Bush leaves office in January, but both sides are divided on what it should entail and when to address the thorniest issues.

Before the meeting with Mr Olmert, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the pace of negotiations would have to pick up if the leaders hoped to reach a deal this year, echoing comments by the French Foreign Minister and top United Nations officials.

Addressing Jewish-American leaders, Mr Fayyad said "not enough has happened" since Annapolis to suggest a deal could be reached in the time left. "If indeed this is going to happen, the pace has to be stepped up and stepped up significantly," he said.

Mr Olmert has said the goal of peace talks with Mr Abbas was to reach an understanding on "basic principles" for a Palestinian state by the end of 2008, rather than the full-fledged agreement that Palestinians have been seeking.

Israel considers Arab East Jerusalem, which it captured in a 1967 war and later annexed along with adjacent areas of the West Bank in a move that was never recognised internationally, as part of its "indivisible and eternal capital".

Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be capital of the state they hope to establish in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian militant and a 10-year-old boy in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Palestinian medical workers and militant groups said.

A Hamas official said the boy was killed by Israeli troops operating near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. An Israeli army spokesman said Israeli troops clashed with militants in the area, but said the army was unaware of a child being hit.