Paris - Talks for a lasting peace in the Middle East were not going as well as they should, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday.

"Despite the presence (in Paris) of the Palestinian president (Mahmoud Abbas) and the Israeli Prime Minister (Ehud Olmert), the peace process is not going well," Kouchner told France 2 television at the conclusion of the Bastille Day military parade. "We have to persist and work unrelentingly."

Olmert and Abbas were among more than 35 heads of state and government who took part in the ceremonies on France's national holiday.

The situation was particularly bad "on the ground, in the Palestinian territories, where things are not going to change in the coming weeks and months. And they must change," Kouchner said.

On Sunday, Olmert told journalists in Paris that "we have never been closer to a peace agreement than we are today." (dpa)