Middle East:Just days after arriving back from a US-led peace summit, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert played down expectations yesterday that a final status agreement with the Palestinians could be reached by the end of 2008 and said that no deal would be implemented until the Palestinians disarmed militant groups.
"We will make an effort to hold accelerated negotiations in the hope it will be possible to conclude them by the end of 2008, but certainly there is no commitment for a firm timetable for their completion," Mr Olmert told his ministers at yesterday's cabinet meeting.
At the summit, in Annapolis, Maryland, last week, Mr Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas agreed to restart negotiations, which have been frozen for the last seven years, and to secure a comprehensive deal, including the creation of an independent Palestinian state, by the end of next year, just before US president Bush leaves office.
Mr Olmert's comments must be understood within the context of domestic politics, with right-wing parties in his ruling coalition threatening to bolt if he makes concessions to the Palestinians. It is why the Israeli leader yesterday reiterated his assertion that there would be no implementation of a peace agreement if the Palestinians did not fulfil their obligations in the first stage of the road map peace plan.
The first stage also stipulates that Israel must freeze all settlement activity and dismantle dozens of illegal settler outposts that have sprung up across the West Bank in recent years.