Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, poised to resign next month in a graft scandal, pressed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today to move urgently towards fulfilling Washington's wish for a peace deal this year.
Ahead of talks in Jerusalem today, Mr Olmert aides said the Israeli leader planned to ask Abbas to draft a joint document of understandings before Mr lmert's Kadima party holds a leadership vote on September 17th to name his successor.
But Mr Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said after the meeting: "It is not realistic to expect that there's a quick fix or a shortcut. We won't solve the conflict issues on the table in two or three weeks."
Mr Olmert appeared to catch Abbas off-guard during a photo opportunity before the talks by stressing the 2008 timeframe for a deal, set at a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland last November.
"We have to complete the Annapolis process this year -- this year," Mr Olmert, grasping Abbas in a handshake and using his other hand to gesture to the Palestinian leader, said emphatically in English as they posed for photographers.
Such comments have been rarely made on camera during previous meetings between the two men.
Mr Abbas, along with some of Mr Olmert's cabinet colleagues, are cool to the idea of drafting a preliminary document to present to Washington.
"The time factor is important but we either have an agreement on all issues or no agreement," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters in Ramallah after the meeting.