Tel Aviv, Jan. 9: U. S. President George W Bush has arrived in Israel on a landmark visit to the region to help kick-start peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

This is Bush's first visit to Israel and the West Bank since taking office in 2001, the BBC reported.

Ahead of his arrival Palestinian and Israeli leaders agreed to begin tackling core issues dividing them.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli PM Ehud Olmert vowed at a US summit last year to try to achieve a two-state solution by the end of 2008.

In a meeting on Tuesday, Abbas and Olmert authorised their negotiators to begin discussing "final-status" issues of the borders of a future Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem.

After holding talks with Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Bush will go to the West Bank to meet Abbas.

He also plans to visit the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem before making stops in Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. (ANI)