Nothing achieved in Israeli talks, says Abbas

MIDDLE EAST:PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that nothing had been achieved during six months of negotiations with Israel and argued that corruption charges against Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert could end hopes of reaching an agreement by year's end.

"Nothing has been achieved in the negotiations with Israel yet," he stated.

"I fear the probe against Olmert and the American preoccupation with the elections will negatively affect the talks."

Mr Abbas, who is under strong pressure to secure progress in talks proceeding on four levels, made these remarks to a meeting of the Fatah movement's 130- member revolutionary council.

The negotiations are between himself and Mr Olmert, negotiating teams headed by former Palestinian premier Ahmad Qurei and Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, technical committees and military personnel.

While Mr Abbas has recently made pessimistic assessments on the course of the talks, analysts see this statement as an expression of desperation.

He has repeatedly warned that Israel's continuing expansion of its settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank will prevent the emergence of a viable Palestinian state.

He has also rejected Mr Olmert's suggestion that they reach a "shelf agreement", a framework of a deal that would be completed and implemented when both sides were ready to move forward.

He has also turned down a US proposal for a Palestinian state with undefined borders.

Mr Abbas's statement was echoed by Fatah ally Abdul-Rahim Mallouh, deputy secretary general of the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

He said the peace process was faltering and there was no end in sight. He observed that Hamas's takeover of Gaza added a new dimension to the Palestinian problem by pitting one faction against the other and leading them to look out for their partisan interests rather than the interests of the Palestinian people as a whole.

Mr Mallouh accused the Arabs of having no strategy to confront Israel and its ally, the US.

Mr Abbas is likely to come under strong popular pressure to resign by the end of 2008 if Palestinians and Israelis fail to achieve substantial progress in the talks and if Israel does not ease restrictions on Palestinian movement and trade in the West Bank and lift the Gaza siege.

Seventy-four per cent of Palestinians responding to an online poll posted by Bethlehem-based, European-funded Ma'an News Agency said he should step down if there is no progress, while only 22 per cent said he should stay on.

Many West Bank Palestinians contend that the discredited Palestinian Authority should be dissolved and Israel should be compelled to take control of Palestinian areas, in accordance with international laws governing occupying powers.