Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday said that efforts to schedule a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have broken down, aides in the prime minister's office said Sunday. The aides quoted Olmert as saying Abbas is demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners as a condition for holding the meeting. Olmert said there would be no prisoner release until Hamas-linked fighters in the Gaza Strip release an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, captured in June. «We offered to meet with Abu Mazen, but apparently he is not interested,» Olmert was quoted as saying during a meeting. «He is conditioning a meeting on the release of prisoners and we will not release any prisoners until Gilad Shalit is released,» the Associated Press reported.
