Gaza:Palestinians will not pursue peace talks with Israel without an agreed timeline for reaching a deal on statehood, chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurie said yesterday.
"The Israeli prime minister had announced that he will not accept a timeline, and we say we won't accept negotiations without a timeline. We do not want to go to open negotiations," Mr Qurie told reporters.
He made the comments ahead of a planned visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank at the weekend by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who is preparing the ground for a US-led Middle East conference in late November or early December.
Western and Israeli officials have described a two-track process coming out of the Annapolis, Maryland, meeting: the start of formal talks over a Palestinian state and a push to implement the first phase of a long-stalled "road map" peace plan.
The officials said Washington was considering holding a large follow-up meeting in mid-2008, bringing the two tracks together in a way that the Palestinians hope will culminate in some sort of agreement on statehood.
By holding a follow-up session, the US could offer the Palestinians a semblance of a timeline without setting firm deadlines, western diplomats said.
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, declined to respond to Mr Qurie's demands for a timeline, which Israel has long opposed. - (Reuters)