Israel's Livni says committed to peace talks

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in her first policy address since being nominated to form Israel's next government, voiced her commitment on Sunday to press ahead with peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

"Annapolis will continue," Livni said, referring to a U.S.-sponsored peace conference last November that restarted talks on a Palestinian state that have shown few signs of progress.

"Let us not allow dates or political changes to stand in our way," she said in an address at a policy conference at Israel's Foreign Ministry also attended by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have expressed doubts they could meet Washington's goal of reaching a peace deal by the end of the year, before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office.

"We see that the next months are maintaining a level of uncertainty and that level of uncertainty is getting higher and higher," Malki said in his English-language address to the forum at the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

"We are waiting to see who will be the next president, (Barack) Obama versus (John) McCain, and believe me there is a big difference between the two vis a vis the situation in the Middle East ... the Middle East peace process and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Malki said.

He did not elaborate on the Palestinian view of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.

Livni was asked by President Shimon Peres on September 22 to form a government in 42 days following the resignation, under a cloud of corruption allegations, of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Olmert, who launched the current peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, remains prime minister in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed, either through a coalition deal or an early election.

"We hope that (Livni) will succeed (to form a new government) because this will also show continuity and commitment to the peace process and to the negotiations (for) a Palestinian state," Malki said.

Commenting on a key issue that has blocked progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, Malki described Israel's settlement activity in the occupied West Bank as a "timebomb."

But he said the Palestinian Authority remained committed to the talks as a "strategic choice" and to pursuing an "internal dialogue" to reconcile with Hamas Islamists who seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr, Editing by Dominic Evans)