Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met on Sunday for the second time in a month to discuss the progress of the peace negotiations.

A spokesman for Olmert said the two sides continued discussions on core issues and that there were still gaps between the parties.

"There is a need for ongoing serious efforts" to solve the "complex issues on the table," said spokesman Mark Regev.

Regev stressed that there were no attempts during the meet at Olmert's Jerusalem residence to force a joint document in the upcoming weeks and that the goal was to reach an agreement by year's end, as was stated when the Annapolis peace process was launched last autumn.

A Palestinian official also said that no temporary or partial agreement would be issued.

"We reiterated in today's meeting that what we need is to reach a comprehensive peace agreement and not a partial one," Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiators, told reporters after the meeting.

"When we are ready, we will declare that there is a comprehensive peace agreement that includes all the basic issues," said Erekat.

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper had reported that Olmert was looking to reach a deal before he leaves office, sometime after his Kadima party holds internal elections in September.

The daily paper said Olmert proposed that negotiations over the future of Jerusalem - a potential deal-breaker - be held under an international umbrella, with "governments and other international parties" able to contribute, but not impose, their views.

Olmert also reportedly wants a five-year timetable for completing a deal on Jerusalem, though Abbas has said that all issues must be handled within the framework of the current talks.

Israel has to date always rejected any international participation in debates over the future of Jerusalem, for example firmly ruling out proposals, from the original 1947 Palestine partition plan, that it become an international city.

After the meeting, Palestinian officials said they opposed any plan for an international mechanism to deal with Jerusalem.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and incorporated it into the boundaries of West Jerusalem shortly afterwards, insisting that the entire, united, city was its eternal capital.

Palestinians, however, want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

The issue is a highly charged one, since East Jerusalem includes within its parameters the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif compound in the Old City.

For Jews, the compound is built on the site of their Biblical temple, while Muslims believe it marks the spot from where the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.

The Ha'aretz report caused an almost immediate furore in Israel, with the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, one of Olmert's coalition partners, insisting the premier had neither the legal nor the public authority to make a deal with the Palestinians or to make a deal on Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest city.

"It is clear to everyone that Jerusalem's fate cannot be negotiated like it was a currency, and certainly not with international participation," Eli Yishai said.

The meeting between the two leaders lasted for about 45 minutes and was preceded by talks with the negotiating teams, including Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian premier Ahmed Qureia.

During their private meeting, Abbas thanked Olmert for freeing 198 Palestinian prisoners earlier this month but could not get a promise for any future releases.

Abbas was seeking to secure the release of Marwan Barghouti, the imprisoned West Bank leader of the Fatah movement, who has been in an Israeli jail for the past six years, and other senior Palestinian leaders from other factions.

The Olmert-Abbas parley was expected to be the last between the two men before Olmert leaves office.

The Israeli premier, mired in corruption investigations, announced in July that he will step down once his Kadima party chooses a new leader and his successor forms a new government.

The Kadima primaries are scheduled to take place on September 17. (dpa)