Israel and the Palestinians “have never been this close” to a peace deal, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday following talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris. Olmert and Abbas were among 43 leaders gathering in Paris for the launch of a new Union for the Mediterranean, which aims to boost cooperation in one of the world's most volatile regions. “We have never been as close to an accord as we are today,” Olmert told a press conference following talks hosted by President Nicolas Sarkozy at the French presidential palace. “We are approaching the moment when we will have to make decisive choices,” he said. Both Abbas and Olmert called on Sarkozy, as president of France, chair of the European Union presidency and host of the new Mediterranean union, to take a front-seat role in steering peace negotiations. Abbas said that Sarkozy's “friendship” with both Israelis and Palestinians “enables you to play an important role to help the peace process succeed in a few months.” “We have started an in-depth negotiation with Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni,” Abbas said. Sarkozy said Arab states had made a “gesture of peace” by attending the summit. “I want to hail the courage of all those who answered our invitation,” Sarkozy told the more than 40 heads of state and government present for the opening of the summit in Paris. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called for Israelis and Palestinians to step up their efforts to reach a peace deal. “I call on (Palestinian) President Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), and (Israeli) Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert, to pursue the path of negotiations to bring about total and global peace,” Mubarak told the gathering. Meanwhile, an Israeli government official said Olmert has agreed to release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. Mediterranean Union launched French President Nicolas Sarkozy launched a 43-nation Union for the Mediterranean Sunday with a plea for Middle Eastern countries to emulate Europe's model of reconciliation and integration. The ceremonial inaugural summit at the lofty iron-and-glass Grand Palais in Paris sealed a new detente between Syria and Europe, with the Syrian and Israeli leaders also sitting at the same table for the first time. But there was no handshake and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad appeared to go out of his way to avoid Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, hiding his face behind his arm as he walked past where the Israeli leader was standing. “Everyone will have to make an effort, as the Europeans did, to put an end to the deadly spiral of war and violence, that, century after century, repeatedly brought barbarity to the heart of civilization,” Sarkozy said in the keynote speech. On Saturday Sarkozy hosted landmark talks between Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Lebanon's President Michel Sleiman.
