RAMALLAH, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has presented a document on settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the U.S. administration when he met President Barack Obama in Washington, an official Palestinian source said Saturday.

    Abbas's proposal was based on the U.S.-backed Road Map peace plan, previous agreements reached between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the Arab peace initiative, the well-informed source added.

    "The plan includes timetables and mechanisms for carrying out the deals to push forward the political process," said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Obama told Abbas that he will send his envoy George Mitchell to the region next week to meet Israeli and Palestinian officials and discuss ways of pushing the stalled peace talks forward.

    The Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were resumed in late 2007 following a stimulation by former President George W. Bush but failed to achieve any progress.

    The Palestinians say the non-stop construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the territory which will make the largest part of a future Palestinian statehood, was the main obstacle on the way of the talks.

    Abbas, who held his first meeting with Obama in Washington on Thursday, asked for an immediate help to stop the Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, including the so-called natural growth of the settlements.

    "He also asked for removing the checkpoints in the West Bank, lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip and reopening the PNA's office in East Jerusalem, taking in consideration that these were basic points in the Road Map," the source said.

    Obama emphasized the need to create a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel as the best solution, reiterating his administration's commitment to achieving this goal, according to the source.

    Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said Obama's statements generated more optimism for the PNA.

    "The Palestinians and the Americans have a common interest in securing a fair and lasting peace in the Middle East," Erekat added, stressing that the Palestinian statehood must be "viable."

    "Time is running out and the two-state solution must be applied," he added.

    Meanwhile, Islamic Hamas movement, bitter rival of Abbas, said the meeting between Abbas and Obama was disappointing and did not bring any new thing.

    Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said his movement saw Abbas's commitment to the Road Map as "an uprooting of the resistance and a liquidation of Hamas" as the plan calls on the PNA to dismantle the armed Palestinian groups.

    "All the Palestinian factions rejected the Road Map except Abbas," Barhoum said, adding that Obama's statements were "insufficient wishes that are no longer useful under the Zionist increasing military escalation."

    Hamas wants Abbas to halt peace negotiations with Israel, and to adopt armed resistance against Israel to pressurize the Jewish state into giving the Palestinians their legitimate rights back.

    Abbas, however, insists on pursuing peace talks with Israel until finding a fair and just peaceful solution to the conflict and establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.





Fatah rejects Hamas proposal on limited sharing of Gaza forces

   GAZA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party on Saturday rejected a Hamas proposal on sharing power with Fatah only at the border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

    In a response to an Egyptian mediation effort, Hamas, which overran pro-Abbas forces and seized control of Gaza in June 2007, has said the Islamic movement and Fatah can only form a joint force at Rafah border crossing. Full story

Special Report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts