Bush to meet Abbas in New York next week: W.House
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush plans to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York on Monday during the U.N. General Assembly meetings, the White House said.
The meeting will be to "continue discussions on helping the Palestinian Authority and on issues related to an eventual two-state solution of Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security," White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said on Thursday.
It was not clear whether Bush would also meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in New York.
Bush has promoted a two-state solution but the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been stalled for most of his administration.
The meeting next week would follow a round of talks this week -- between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Abbas and Olmert -- trying to hammer out details of a planned U.S.-sponsored peace conference later this year.
Rice said Olmert and Abbas had come a "very, very long way" since she hosted a frosty meeting between them last February in Jerusalem and she was optimistic Palestinians and Israelis would agree to a joint document on the tough issues that divide them before the conference.
During her 36-hour diplomatic push, she assured Abbas the peace conference scheduled for November near Washington should put the Palestinians firmly on the path to establishing their own state.
