Israel, Palestine Resume Peace Talks

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday held their first summit since they agreed last month to renew peace talks, seeking to resolve a dispute over planned Israeli construction in east Jerusalem.

Abbas was demanding a freeze on the project, and appealed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before the meeting to press Israel on the issue. A State Department spokesman said Rice called both Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and urged them to make progress toward an agreement.

The summit, which began Thursday afternoon, was the first since the two sides kicked off official peace talks at a U.S.-sponsored conference last month. The Jerusalem dispute has already clouded meetings between negotiating teams since the gathering in Annapolis, Md.

Israel announced last month that it was building 307 new apartments in Har Homa, part of a ring of Jewish neighborhoods around east Jerusalem where about 180,000 Israelis live. Palestinians are demanding that Israel halt the project.

Israel, which annexed east Jerusalem after capturing it along with the West Bank in 1967, does not accept demands to limit its construction there.

Abu Rdeneh said joint committees would begin discussing the main issues, "but there is a need to freeze the settlement activities in order to create the appropriate atmosphere to bring progress in the peace process." He said Abbas would ask Olmert for "a clear cessation of settlement activities."

The main issues - final borders, Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem and its holy sites - have stymied years of peace efforts.

Thursday's meeting comes just two weeks before President Bush visits the region in an effort to build on momentum from the Annapolis summit.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel is committed to trying for a peace treaty with the Palestinians in 2008, as decided at Annapolis.

"This is an ambitious goal. It will demand our tenacity, our determination and both sides coming to the table in the spirit of seriousness," he said.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said "this (construction) kills the credibility of the peace process."

On Thursday, about seven Israeli tanks pushed about 330 yards into southern Gaza, clashing with armed Hamas militants, witnesses said. Israel frequently carries out airstrikes and ground incursions in Gaza to halt ongoing Palestinian attacks on southern Israeli communities.

The Israeli army did not confirm the incursion, but said it had carried out an air strike in the area after a border patrol was attacked with gunfire and mortars. There were no reports of injuries.

In the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik on Wednesday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also criticized the Jerusalem construction plans in a meeting with the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who in turn pressed Egypt to do more to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza.

Israel is concerned that Gaza's Hamas rulers are using tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border to smuggle ammunition and explosives to brace for an intensified round of fighting against Israel. Egypt angrily rejected the charges.

At the meeting, the two sides agreed to set up a joint security team to coordinate anti-smuggling operations, and Israel said it would consider supplying Egypt with technology and intelligence reports, Israeli security officials said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the contacts.

An influential U.S. senator visiting Israel said Wednesday that Egypt must crack down on the "intolerable" flow of the weapons into the Gaza Strip.

"And if they don't, I think it would be appropriate to condition aid to them," Sen. Arlen Specter, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters in Jerusalem.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni infuriated Cairo earlier this week by accusing its forces of doing a "terrible" job in securing the border, saying this stands in the way of Israel's negotiations with the Palestinians because it strengthens Gaza extremists.

Following his visit, Barak said the crisis with Egypt was over.