NEW YORK - US President George W. Bush and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas meet Thursday to assess Middle East peace efforts that are not expected to yield a hoped-for breakthrough by year's end.
Bush, the first sitting US president to call for the creation of a Palestinian state, now seems unlikely to achieve that high-priority before leaving office in January, and even major progress seems doubtful.
Political upheaval in Israel, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has resigned in the face of corruption scandal, has cast further uncertainty over what can be done in just four months.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, tasked by Israeli President Shimon Peres to form a new government, is locked in political talks that appear to have pushed peace talks on the back burner.
Abbas, in New York for the UN General Assembly, has openly acknowledged that he has little hope of an imminent deal but stresses that he will keep working as he waits to see the new Israeli government and a new US president.
"We cannot call this a last-chance meeting. We are going to talk with them (the United States) until the very last moment," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
"We are not waiting for the arrival of a new administration to try to reach a peace accord, the only way to put an end to the Israeli occupation and the suffering of our people," he added.
Continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and a lack of breakthroughs on sensitive core issues like the fate of occupied Jerusalem have dogged the talks since they were revived at a US-sponsored conference in Annapolis in 2007 with the goal of sealing a deal in 2008.
But Palestinian officials say they will not be squeezed into accepting a partial peace deal that does not satisfy their hopes or defers the toughest issues.
"We reject any partial accord," said Erakat. "We want a complete agreement covering all of the issues."
Some Israeli media had reported in mid-September that Olmert hoped for a deal with Abbas that would largely echo the Annapolis declaration, but would not go into much detail and would not address the status of Arab east Jerusalem.
"We will not accept a last-minute agreement on which we are not consulted," said Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki.
"President Abbas will detail to President Bush what has been accomplished to date in the talks, and what still needs to be done before the end of the year. The goal is to see whether we have hit an impasse or whether there is still a chance of reaching a deal," he added.
Peres has downplayed chances of a deal by year's end.
"We have hoped to conclude it by the end of year but apparently we shall not conclude it by the end of the year. I do believe that we made real progress and there is a very fair chance to conclude it during the next year," he said.
Bush made a passing reference to the difficult process in his farewell speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, urging the world body to support "the people of the Palestinian territories, who deserve a free and peaceful state of their own."
"The President looks forward to discussing with President Abbas the progress made toward building Palestinian institutions and toward realizing the vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
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