Ramallah - Israe

Ramallah  - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday evening for their last talks before his ruling Kadima party chooses a new leader.

Olmert's offices indicated the meeting at Olmert's West Jerusalem residence late Tuesday went well. The Kadima primary is Wednesday.

The leaders focussed on the status of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians which were renewed in January with a view to implementing the first phase of the international "road map" peace plan.

Ramallah  - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday evening, for their last talks before his ruling Kadima party chooses a new leader.

The parley would be business as usual, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, adding the Palestinians would work with Israel's prime minister for as long as he continued to serve.

"Leaving or not leaving," Erekat told Voice of Palestine Radio, "we work with the prime minister of Israel and we will continue to do so."

Ramallah - Israeli soldiers opened fire Saturday and killed one Palestinian teenager and injured young man in the West Bank village of Taqoa, south-east of Bethlehem, according to medical sources.

They said a 16-year-old Palestinian was dead on arrival at a hospital in Bethlehem after he was shot in the chest. Another 20-year- old Palestinian was injured in the leg and reported in stable condition.

Palestinian sources said the soldiers opened fire at stone-throwing youths near the Palestinian village. The soldiers left the village after the incident.

Ramallah  - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana discussed the peace process in Ramallah Friday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Solana arrived in Ramallah coming from Israel, where he met Foreign Minister Tsibi Livni.

In Ramallah, Abbas told Solana that he is working to reach a final peace agreement on all the core issues. He said he would never accept a partial agreement, or postpone any of the core issues or a declaration of principle, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters after the meeting.

Ramallah  - Despite Israeli denials, a United States official confirmed Thursday that Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to negotiate the future of Jerusalem.

US Consul General in Jerusalem Jake Walles said the parties are negotiating the establishment of a Palestinian state on the basis of the borders that existed before the
1967 Arab-Israeli war, in which Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.