No `core issues' in talks with Abbas: Israeli PM

Israeli Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday said the regular meetings he plans to hold with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will not include any discussion of the "core issues of the conflict," rejecting Palestinian calls to restart talks on a final peace settlement.

Speaking of the first of the meetings, Olmert said the two leaders would discuss "moving ahead with the solution to our conflict with the Palestinians in the framework of establishing a Palestinian state," but added that they would not touch on the substantive issues that divide the sides.

Those include the question of the borders of the proposed Palestinian state, the fate of disputed Jerusalem and a solution for Palestinian refugees who left what is now Israel during the 1948 Middle East War.

Olmert the meeting would instead focus on the Palestinians' "fight against terror" and "arrangements to improve the quality of life" for Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel to move to detailed peace negotiations as long as Palestinian militants continue firing rockets from Gaza and hold an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-linked militants last June.

Israel objects to the makeup of the Palestinian government, which includes Hamas.

Yesterday's meeting got underway in the early afternoon, after Abbas' convoy arrived at Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem. It is meant to be the first in a series of bi-weekly meetings that Olmert and Abbas agreed to hold under prodding from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Olmert reiterated Israel's willingness to hold talks with Arab countries on a 2002 Saudi proposal.