Israeli and Palestinian officials on Sunday played down the prospect of any immediate peace agreement as Ehud Olmert, the discredited prime minister of Israel, begins his final phase in office.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Olmert, noted "considerable gaps" in the negotiating positions and said it was unrealistic to expect to resolve all the issues on the table "in the next two or three weeks."
Olmert met here on Sunday with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. The newspaper Haaretz reported that Olmert had been pressing Abbas to agree to a joint document of principles before Olmert is replaced as leader of his Kadima Party in an election scheduled for Sept. 17.
Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, said the meeting was "clarifying" after "leaks" to the news media had raised the possibility of a partial agreement that would not resolve all the core issues. "We made it very clear today that there would be no delay of issues and no partial agreements," Erekat said.
Olmert, who is being forced from office by a corruption investigation, has pledged to resign once his successor has been elected. He is expected to continue as a caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed, a process that could take weeks or months.
But in that capacity, Olmert is likely to have even less sway over the Israeli public than he has now on decisions of historic importance. The Palestinians are entering the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting when political activity generally winds down.
Both sides reiterated their commitment to the peace effort that began at the American-sponsored Annapolis conference last fall and said again that they hoped to reach agreement before the end of 2008.
"We are working to achieve a joint, historic Israeli-Palestinian document" on establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, Regev said. He added, however, that the issues were complex and that there were "no quick fixes."
Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister of Israel and its chief negotiator with the Palestinians, is a leading contender to replace Olmert. She and her Palestinian counterparts have cautioned against any hasty or partial deal and reiterated that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.
Also on Sunday, Israel expressed displeasure with Abbas over his meeting in Beirut last week with Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese who was held for nearly three decades in Israel after being convicted in a deadly and notorious terrorist attack. He was exchanged with four other Lebanese prisoners for the remains of two Israeli soldiers in July.
"We thought the meeting with Kuntar was a mistake, and we were highly critical of it," Regev said.
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