Olmert, Abbas meet in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met Wednesday at Olmert's Jerusalem residence.

While it was the sixth time the men had met, it was the first time each had their negotiating teams waiting outside the closed-door session, Haaretz reported.

The two were working toward issuing a joint statement in advance of the U.S.-led peace summit in Annapolis, Md., in November, Ynetnews said.

"We plan to form a joint statement which both sides will accept, rather than a permanent agreement," a senior source in Olmert's office told Ynetnews. "The joint statement will be general enough so as not to derail, and on the other hand will push the parties to continue the process."

Haaretz said there were "significant gaps" between the two leaders' opening positions, with Olmert seeking a more vague statement and Abbas seeking an explicit "framework" agreement with a timetable for final-status talks.

Elsewhere, leaders of the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas parties reached an agreement to conduct talks in Cairo, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Wednesday.

An unidentified Palestinian source told the newspaper Egypt's efforts to mediate between the rival movements were apparently successful.