Israel, Arabs should have direct peace talks: Peres

DUBAI (Reuters) - Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Arabs and Israel should have direct talks on peace after Arab leaders on Thursday renewed a 2002 peace offer to the Jewish state.

"Let's sit together as we are supposed to and work on it as we did before with Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians," he told Al Jazeera television in remarks dubbed in Arabic, but he did not say if Israel accepts or rejects the Arab bid.

An Arab summit in Riyadh endorsed a peace plan to end a decades-old conflict with Israel and the Palestinian president warned of more violence if the "hand of peace" was rejected.

The plan, parts of which have been rejected by Israel, offers normal ties with all Arab countries in return for Israel's withdrawal from land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, the creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" for Palestinians displaced in 1948.

"It is time now to start negotiating and not only to make announcements," Peres said. "We should think about the tactics (for peace) and how to implement them," he said.

"We either do this (peace steps) unilaterally or bilaterally. If you do that unilaterally then you are making a declaration but bilaterally there would be an Arab stance and an Israeli stance and these will include some difference," he said.

Peres said no conditions should be set for the envisaged Arab-Israeli negotiations.

"We propose that we meet without setting pre-conditions and negotiate," he said. "We also want comprehensive peace that tackles all of the stagnant issues," he said.

"Yes there are some differences about the refugees and Jerusalem so we should sit together and solve this issue there is no other way."

Peres did not make a direct stance on the initiative but said: "We respect Arab countries and this conference (summit)

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Israel's main ally, the United States, welcomed as a positive step the endorsement by Arab leaders of the 5-year-old peace initiative.