Olmert, pressed by Rice, agrees to talks with Abbas

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, under pressure from the United States, has agreed to resume direct talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, U.S. officials said early today, in an effort to lend new momentum to the search for Middle East peace.

After two days of regional shuttle diplomacy by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Olmert gave up his refusal last week to hold direct talks with Abbas because of the Israeli leader’s unhappiness with the new Palestinian government still led by the militant group Hamas.

Olmert and Abbas will start with discussions on limited topics aimed at confidence building and possibly move to items that are more serious obstacles, said officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the diplomacy.

The Israeli agreement is only a small step, given the two leaders met as recently as February, and there is a risk they could break off contact again. But U.S. officials saw the move as a sign that Rice’s Middle East initiative, announced in September, could push the peace effort forward, even if only slightly.

Olmert’s agreement came after late-night bargaining Monday and amid signs that the politically weak prime minister was resisting American attempts to begin discussing some of the most difficult issues, such as the fate of Palestinian refugees, borders and the status of East Jerusalem. Olmert, apparently fearing U.S. pressure to yield ground on some issues, also had doubts about a proposal by Rice to have the United States act as an intermediary in “parallel” talks with both sides, diplomats said.

Rice has been trying to set up a series of side-by-side discussions with Israeli and Palestinian officials in hopes of achieving a breakthrough before the end of the Bush administration in 20 months.

The Israeli media interpreted the diplomatic developments as a setback for the United States, emphasizing that Rice had been unable to persuade Olmert to begin immediate talks on the toughest issues.

Haaretz, a liberal Israeli paper, referred to a “lack of any substantive progress” despite the planned confidence-building talks.

Speaking Monday morning during a news conference with United Nations SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon, Olmert said, “Whether this can be described as a new initiative, I don’t know.”

Amid the difficult bargaining, Rice postponed to this morning a public appearance that had been planned for Monday to discuss the progress of her trip. She is to return to the United States today.

The secretary, appearing with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday afternoon, said she had no intention of pushing the Israelis.

“I don’t intend by any means to take control of the Palestinian-Israeli bilateral dialogue,” Rice said. “I think it extremely important that that continue. What my role is, is to assist the parties.”

At the same time, Rice has been trying to add a potentially important dimension by enlisting Arab countries to develop their 2002 peace initiative. Most experts believe this effort may be more valuable than U.S. steps to restart direct Israeli-Palestinian talks.

There were signs of progress on that regional front Monday, as foreign ministers of the Arab League, meeting in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in advance of a general meeting of the group Wednesday, said they planned to reaffirm their support for the initiative. The measure promises Israel recognition and peace with its Arab neighbors if it surrenders land taken in the 1967 Middle East War and agrees to address the grievances of Palestinian refugees who fled in 1948.

The Arab leaders said they planned to set up a working group to help determine how to make the plan the basis for negotiations. Diplomats said proposals for the working group suggested flexibility on the Arabs’ part, though Arab leaders have insisted that they will not change the document.

Diplomats have also been discussing a possible meeting on Middle East peace that would involve four leading Arab governments, the international diplomatic quartet -- the U.N., the European Union, Russia and the United States -- as well as Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Olmert said Monday that he would “not hesitate to participate” if invited to such a meeting. He said he would look at such a summit “in a positive manner.”

David Makovsky, a Middle East expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that the Arab governments had great leverage in any peace effort and that their contribution “could be critical in helping jump-start” talks that had been stalled for years.

But he said it was important for Rice to show that the Israeli-Palestinian track offered some possibility of progress as well. “It’s got to look like there’s some promise,” he said.

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paul.richter@latimes.com

Times staff writer Ken Ellingwood contributed to this report.