Abbas says no progress made in talks with Bush / Palestinian leader says settlements are biggest obstacles

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(04-26) 04:00 PDT American Capital --

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that he failed to accomplish any advancement in Center East peace negotiation with President Shrub and was returning place with small to demo for his visit.

In an interview, the Palestinian leader sounded pessimistic about the prospects of achieving a trade with State Of Israel this year, despite a U.S. pushing that began five calendar months ago at a acme in Annapolis, Md.

"Frankly, so far nil have been achieved. But we are still conducting direct work to have got a solution," Abbas said.

He said the greatest obstruction is Israel's continued enlargement of Judaic colonies in Palestinian-occupied territories.

"We demanded the Americans implement the first form of the route map that negotiation about the surcease of colony expansion," Abbas said, expressing letdown that the United States have not set more than pressure level on State Of Israel to stop. "This is the greatest blight that stands as a large stone in the way of negotiations."

Asked for comment, White Person House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "President Shrub is helping to force the procedure forward. This wasn't a meeting in which major discoveries were expected.

"Ultimately, this is for the Israelis and the Palestinians to come up to an agreement. Each political party have more than to make - and given the serious committedness of the leaders, the president stays confident that defining a state by the end of the twelvemonth is still possible."

Israel is pushing forward with edifice undertakings on moot land in the Occident Depository Financial Institution and east Capital Of Israel and is refusing to take down illegal colony outposts, release Palestinian prisoners, arrest armed forces incursions, and level barriers that interrupt day-to-day life.

Abbas' Pluto said he also was upset after his luncheon Thursday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. While discussing what a peace trade would look like, Rice did not advert the Palestinian end of creating a state based on boundary lines before State Of Israel captured Palestinian land during the 1967 Mideast war.

"We demanded that they speak about the '67 borders," Abbas said, showing a rare flash of anger. "None of them speaks about the '67 borders."

The chief unsolved issues include the concluding boundary lines of a Palestinian state, the fate of Jerusalem, disputed Israeli colonies and Palestinian refugees.

Saeb Erekat, the head Palestinian negotiator, said Shrub did not react directly when Abbas brought up the issue of Palestinian expostulations to continuing Israeli colony expansion.

Abbas said he was looking for a full Center East peace model understanding with inside information and timetables, while the Israelis have got signaled that a "declaration of principles" would be adequate of an accomplishment before Shrub go forths business office in January.

Also on Friday, a Palestinian gunslinger killed two Israeli security guards at a mill near the barrier between State Of State Of Israel and the Occident Bank, as Israel dismissed a Hamas proposal for a cease-fire inch the Gaza Strip.

Friday's onslaught was unusual in that most of the recent force against Israeli marks have emanated from Gaza, not the Occident Bank. The onslaught underscored the challenge facing the Palestinian Authority, which throws sway in the Occident Depository Financial Institution but have been criticized by State Of Israel for not doing adequate to heighten security.

Several armed groupings took duty for the killings, including Hamas, the Islamist motion that controls Gaza.

The American Capital Post contributed to this report.