(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-19 16:39

JERUSALEM - Israeli and Palestinian leaders were to meet on Monday in a last-ditch attempt to bridge differences and agree on a joint statement ahead of a peace meeting in the United States.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gestures as he speaks during a meeting with the Peace Initiates Council at his residence in Jerusalem, 18 November 2007. [Agencies]

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas were to hold talks at the premier's Jerusalem residence for the latest in a series of one-on-one meetings in recent months.

"Misters Abbas and Olmert will hold in Jerusalem this afternoon a last encounter before the Annapolis meeting," Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP.

"The two will try once again today to work toward a joint declaration before this meeting."

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP that the two leaders "will review the work done by negotiating teams and try to bridge the gaps as differences on the concepts continue to divide the two parties."

The US-sponsored peace conference is widely expected to take place in Annapolis, Maryland next week, although the United States has yet to officially announce the date and the list of participants.

Washington called the meeting with the aim of jumpstarting peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians after a seven-year freeze, but gaps between the two sides have lowered expectations about its outcome.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have held intensive talks in a bid to hammer out a joint declaration outlining a solution to the Middle East conflict which they hope to present at the US talks.

But while they have agreed that the document will address the core issues of their decades-long conflict - borders, the fate of refugees and the status of the contested city of Jerusalem - they remain at odds over how detailed any declaration should be.

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