Rice, Abbas discuss Annapolis conference

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- The head of the Palestinian Authority, after meeting with the U.S. secretary of state, said he believes a Palestinian state can be established by 2009.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said while standing alongside U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he believes that goal can be accomplished before the end of U.S. President George Bush's term in January 2009, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Abbas, echoing statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the upcoming peace conference in Annapolis, Md., will be used as a springboard for negotiations surrounding the status of Jerusalem, the borders of the planned Palestinian state, the removal of Israeli settlements from the West Bank and the fate of Palestinian refugees who fled the area in 1948 when Israel was established.

"This is a historic time, a time of real opportunity," Rice said. The upcoming conference "should be a launching pad for the negotiations that we have long sought." Those negotiations, "I sincerely hope ... could achieve their goal within the time remaining within the Bush administration."