Israeli-Palestinian deal "doable" in 9 months: EU

By Adam Entous

JERICHO, West Bank (Reuters) - The EU's top diplomat said on Tuesday an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal was "doable" within nine months and that the issue of the Golan Heights should be addressed by a planned peace conference this month.

Syria has made its attendance conditional on the conference agenda including the Golan Heights, captured from it by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. The talks on Palestinian statehood are slated for the last week of November in Annapolis, Maryland.

U.S. President George W. Bush called for the conference to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the long-stalled peace process after Hamas Islamists seized the Gaza Strip in June, and Israel has resisted adding Golan to the agenda.

The conference may also be a chance for the Bush administration to turn its legacy around from the unpopular war in Iraq.

"What we have in mind now is to finish the (Israeli-Palestinian) agreement after Annapolis in, let's say, eight, nine months -- during the period of time in which the administration, the present American administration, will stay in power," the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, told Reuters in the West Bank town of Jericho.

"It's doable. It requires political will. It requires effort. It's not easy. But it's doable," Solana said.

It is unclear how a deal would be implemented with the Palestinian territories divided between Hamas ruling Gaza and Abbas's Fatah faction dominating the occupied West Bank. Seven people died on Monday in gunfire at a Fatah rally in Gaza.

Solana acknowledged growing tensions between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators struggling to narrow differences over a joint document to be presented at the conference.

The document is meant to address in general terms issues like borders and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, and serve as a starting point for formal statehood negotiations slated for after the Annapolis conference.

Palestinian negotiators have told Western diplomats in recent days they were increasingly pessimistic differences over the document could be bridged, casting doubt on the willingness of key Arab states like Saudi Arabia to attend.

"We're at a very important moment," Solana said. "As we approach the beginning of the process, there will be some tensions. But I'm sure that this is going to be overcome."

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The main session of the Annapolis conference is expected to be held on November 27 and last one day, Israeli officials said.

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition that he not be named, said there could be related events before or afterwards.

Diplomats had initially expected a two-day gathering.