Quds city, September 30, SPA -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet Tuesday to work on a joint statement to be issued at a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference, Olmert's office said Sunday. Olmert will host Abbas at his Jerusalem residence in his sukka, a traditional hut in which Jews eat during the weeklong Sukkot holiday that began last week, Olmert's office said. The leaders will be joined for the first time by working teams that are drafting the joint statement, Olmert's office said. U.S. President George W. Bush hopes the conference will bring about the full resumption of peace talks leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Olmert and Abbas have met at the behest of the Americans five times in recent months to help lay the groundwork for peace talks, which broke down amid fighting in 2001. The Bush administration wants key Arab states to attend and lend backbone to the U.S. efforts, according to a report of the Associated Press.
