(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-19 23:41

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister and Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas started their meeting on Monday afternoon in Olmert's official Jerusalem residence.

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (R) and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni attend a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem November 19, 2007. Olmert sought to win wide Arab participation in a U.S.-led peace conference by reaffirming on Monday a pledge not to build new Jewish settlements and to uproot smaller outposts. [Agencies]

The meeting will be the last one between the two leaders ahead of the US-sponsored Middle East peace summit, which is scheduled to take place at the end of November in Annapolis, Maryland.

According to London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi, the two will discuss the outline of an American statement drafted by the US State Department, which would be presented at the parley.

The American statement would reportedly supplant the joint Israeli-Palestinian statement that the two sides have all but given up on hammering out ahead of Annapolis meeting.

Olmert's office has denied the report, Israel's Army Radio said.

Negotiation teams of Israel and the PNA are currently preparing a joint statement which will be presented at the summit in Annapolis. But both sides have said that the negotiations were once again in stalemate.

Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted a senior Israeli diplomat as saying on Sunday that, "at present time, we don't have a joint statement or even a draft for one."

The official then attributed the reason of the deadlock to the backtracking of the Palestinians in current negotiations.

On the other hand, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat also said on Monday that the two sides have not yet agreed on a joint document, adding that differences involve "terms and concepts."

The negotiator accused Israel of avoiding the implantation of the Road Map peace plan by demanding the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state before applying the US-backed plan.

Erekat said Abbas and Olmert will try to bridge gaps between the two sides during their Monday meeting.