Quds city, August 28, SPA -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas headed into a meeting with the Israeli leader Tuesday warning that a planned international peace conference would be a «waste of time» if it failed to address the core issues of Palestinian statehood _ borders, refugees and Jerusalem. Abbas pressed Israel to be more specific on how it plans to approach peace talks, saying Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's proposed «declaration of principles» would not suffice. U.S. President George W. Bush has called for a Mideast peace conference, expected to take place in November, to advance a final Israeli-Palestinian accord. «If there is a clear framework including final status issues, we will welcome this and go to the conference,» Abbas told Voice of Palestine radio. In the Voice of Palestine Radio interview, Abbas also said he and Olmert would discuss ways to ease the daily lives of Palestinians in the West Bank, where movement is restricted by Israeli roadblocks, and in Gaza, which has been isolated since Hamas wrested control in June. «All our day-to-day concerns will be presented in the meeting,» Abbas was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
