(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-15 07:55

Israel and the Palestinians opened their most serious peace talks in seven years yesterday, urged by US President George W. Bush to reach a deal within a year despite deep public skepticism.

It took nearly seven weeks to start so-called final-status talks, announced at a US-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland, underscoring the hurdles Bush faces in getting a Palestinian statehood deal in his final year in office.

Yesterday's negotiations followed Bush's first presidential visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank last week, when he set the goal of signing a peace treaty in 2008 and encouraged both sides to begin talking in earnest.

But it is unclear how Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, both weakened politically, can get a deal in that timeframe, let alone implement it.

Abbas wields little power beyond the West Bank after Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. Olmert is likely to face new calls to resign after an inquiry into the 2006 Lebanon war issues its final report on January 30.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, the chief negotiators, launched the talks that will deal with issues such as borders and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

"We started today talking about all the core issues, Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements. We talked about these issues in general. The talks were positive but the path ahead is difficult," Qurie said after the meeting in a Jerusalem hotel.

Livni said before the session that upcoming talks would "take place quietly" away from the "glare of the cameras".

Media attention during peace talks that ended in 2001, she said, caused negotiators to grandstand, which "raised expectations and led to disappointment and violence".

Israeli officials said Livni and Qurie planned to meet regularly. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Aryeh Mekel said their discussions "will be intensive".

At odds

Israeli officials said Olmert was seeking a deal that would outline a "framework" for a Palestinian state with implementation delayed until the Palestinians can ensure Israel's security.

Abbas wants a final peace treaty enabling him to declare a state by the end of the year.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said a framework accord could be reached "in one month, or two months, maximum", clearing the way for a full treaty by 2009.

But substantive talks on issues like Jerusalem could put Olmert's governing coalition in jeopardy.

The right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party has threatened to quit, possibly this week.

In the Gaza Strip, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the negotiations were "a crime against the Palestinian people".

The first final-status talks since 2001 were supposed to begin soon after November's Annapolis conference. But the Palestinians demanded Israel first commit to ceasing all settlement activity, as stipulated by a 2003 peace "road map".

Under US pressure, Olmert responded with a de-facto halt to new construction in settlements. But he has not called off plans to build hundreds of homes in a settlement near Jerusalem Israelis call Har Homa and Palestinians Jabal Abu Ghneim.

Olmert said Bush had assured him during his visit that the Palestinians would need to meet their security obligations under the road map before any peace deal was implemented.