Ramallah - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday
said the Palestinian Authority was open to holding peace talks with
any Israeli leadership and was confident the process would continue
with Tzipi Livni, who is likely to soon take over the premier's post.
'We will continue peace talks with the current Israeli leadership
headed by Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert or the one that will be headed
by new Kadima chief (Tzipi) Livni,' Abbas said.
At a joint news conference with visiting French Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner, the Palestinian leader said peace talks would
continue with any Israeli leadership 'until a Palestinian state with
Jerusalem as its capital is established.'
Earlier in the day, Kouchner said he believed that a peace deal
between Israel and the Palestinians before the end of 2008 was
unlikely.
Attending the opening of a French/German-financed industrial park
in the West Bank city of Jenin, Kouchner said a general document
could be signed within the timeframe, but a final peace deal - which
would include the main sticking point of the status of Jerusalem -
was not expected.
United States President George W Bush has repeatedly claimed that
a deal for Arab-Israeli peace is possible before he leaves office in
January 2009.
Kouchner also pledged more French support to the Palestinian
Authority.
Abbas called on European Union countries 'to exert more intensive
efforts to push forward the Middle East peace process and achieve the
two-state solution, adding that 'the European role has to be
complementary to the US role.'
Kouchner was also invited by Taher al-Noono, spokesman of the
deposed government led by the Islamic Hamas movement in Gaza, to
visit the Gaza Strip.
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