Bush, Olmert, Abbas dine as envoys negotiate

Bush will open the Annapolis conference by making clear in a speech that Mideast peace is a top priority for the rest of his time in office through January 2009, but he is expected to conclude that the time is not right for him to advance his own ideas on how to achieve that, said national security adviser Stephen Hadley.

"The Israelis and Palestinians have waited a long time for this vision to be realized, and I call upon all those gathering in Annapolis this week to redouble their efforts to turn dreams of peace into reality," Bush said in a statement Sunday night.

The run-up to the meeting has been fraught with disputes, skepticism and suspicion about the opposing parties' good faith. And expectations remain low.

Clinching a joint statement of objectives from Abbas and Olmert, indeed, is seen as a tall order because of the charged issues that divide the two sides. Rice wasn't able to bridge the gaps, even after eight missions to the region this year.

Still, whatever joint agreement the Israelis and Palestinians present at Annapolis will be a starting point and is likely to sketch only vague bargaining terms. The big statehood questions that have doomed previous peace efforts would come later.

Saeb Erekat, a principal Palestinian negotiator, told The Associated Press on Monday that his side wants, among other things, language providing for the monitoring of two states living side by side in peace and also some specification that a peace treaty should be accomplished before the end of 2008.

Hamas a wild card
The conference, which is taking place in Washington and Annapolis, Md., is meant to draw outside backing for the difficult talks that will follow. The Arab League endorsement of the gathering, while reluctant, was considered crucial because Abbas needs to be shored up, especially after Islamic Hamas militants routed his loyalists in the Gaza Strip in June and now rule there.

In his speech before the gathering on Tuesday, Olmert will reassert his position that implementation of any peace deal would require a halt to attacks on Israel from Gaza, Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

Hamas is the main wild card in renewed peace efforts. Israel and the Palestinians hope that progress on peacemaking will weaken the Islamic group and give Abbas the ability to extend his influence to include that territory, too. But there is no guarantee that logic will prevail and that Hamas will be removed.

Olmert has not explicitly called for the Islamic group's ouster.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Abbas' seat of government, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki called on Israel to commit at the conference to a complete freeze on settlement construction.

Olmert made clear Sunday that Annapolis is but a start."

Syria, which has been in a state of war with Israel for six decades, agreed Sunday to attend the session, giving Bush full backing from all 16 Arab states who were invited, plus the Arab League. It hopes to use forum to press for the return of the Golan Heights, strategic territory Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war.

Saudi Arabia's minister of transportation and minister of information and culture, Jbarah Al-Seresri, said Monday that the cabinet headed by King Abdullah has "expressed the kingdom's hope that the conference will deal with the essential issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict, aiming to approach fair and general peace in all aspects within a timetable, according to President George W. Bush's perspective, to establish a Palestinian state relying on international legitimacy, the road map and the Arab initiative."

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