Olmert, Abbas try to close gaps ahead of Bush visit

By Adam Entous

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meet on Tuesday in a last-minute attempt to get stalled peace talks going before a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush.

Six weeks have passed since Bush convened a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to launch the first talks in seven years with the aim of clinching a deal before he leaves office in a year that would establish a Palestinian state.

But the two sides, bogged down by a dispute over Jewish settlement expansion on occupied land near Jerusalem, have yet to set up working groups to try to resolve many of the thorniest issues in the conflict.

Talks on Monday between the lead negotiators -- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurie -- ended without announcement of an expected agreement on the groups and how they will proceed.

Olmert and Abbas will continue the negotiations at a meeting with Livni and Qurie on Tuesday, a day before Bush begins his first presidential visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank.

The delay in reaching a deal on how to conduct the talks underscored the large hurdles facing Bush in meeting his goal of getting Olmert and Abbas to reach an agreement within a year.

It is unclear how the three weakened leaders hope to close the gaps over borders, and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees before Bush leaves office in January 2009.

Abbas wields little authority beyond the Israeli-occupied West Bank after Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. Israel has stepped up attacks in Gaza in recent weeks against militants who fire cross-border rockets.