Israel, Palestinians open talks after push from Bush

By Adam Entous

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians opened their most ambitious peace negotiations in seven years on Monday, urged by U.S. President George W. Bush to reach a deal within a year despite deep public skepticism.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said she would keep details of her talks with former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie confidential, but later told parliament she was "prepared to make significant territorial concessions" to further Israel's interests.

It took seven weeks to start so-called final-status talks, announced at a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland, underscoring the hurdles U.S. President George Bush faces in getting a Palestinian statehood deal in his final year in power.

The first final-status talks since 2001 were supposed to begin soon after November's Annapolis conference. But the Palestinians demanded Israel first commit to ceasing all settlement activity, as stipulated by a 2003 peace "road map".

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas immediately came under new domestic pressure to insist Israel halt settlements.

The Palestinian Central Council, a legislative body, said in a statement after a two-day meeting that it "reiterated the need to condition continuation of the talks to Israel's commitment to halt all settlement activity in all areas occupied in 1967".

The Council is an institution of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which is dominated by Abbas's Fatah faction.

The PCC has acquired new significance since the Palestinian Legislative Council, a parliament dominated by Hamas Islamists, was effectively frozen after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June in fighting that has weakened Abbas's authority.