Abbas and Olmert to hold new round of Mideast peace talks
"The meeting is scheduled to begin this afternoon in Jerusalem at the official residence of the prime minister and with the participation of the negotiating team leaders," Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei have been leading their respective teams since the peace process was formally re-launched under US auspices nine months ago.
"The objective remains to press ahead with the process begun at the Annapolis conference in the United States last November and to try to conclude a historic Israeli-Palestinian agreement," Regev said.
The talks have made little visible progress since they were re-launched and were dealt a blow in July when Olmert announced he would resign following a party primary in September in order to battle corruption allegations.
Regev insisted Olmert's early departure from office would not interfere with the discussions."
Livni is a front-runner to succeed Olmert at the head of their centrist Kadima party, as is Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former general.
Israeli public radio reported that Olmert is pressing for a "framework agreement" to be presented to US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice next month in Washington.
The talks were launched with the goal of reaching a comprehensive solution to the decades-old conflict by the time Bush leaves office in January 2009 but the two sides remain sharply divided on the core issues of the conflict.
These include the final borders of a Palestinian state, the future status of Jerusalem, the fate of some 4.6 million UN-registered Palestinian refugees, and the future of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories.
Last week during a visit to the region Rice again criticised Israel's continuing expansion of settlements in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, but insisted the two sides were making progress behind the scenes.