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Israel PM wants regular meetings with Palestinians

29 August 2010 01:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to meet with Palestinian leaders regularly after peace talks resume next week, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com web-page.
Israeli officials said Saturday that Netanyahu wants biweekly meetings. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Peace talks will restart Sept. 2 in Washington.
The last round of talks ended in late 2008. Before then, Israeli and Palestinian leaders would meet on a regular basis.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he hadnâ€™t heard about the proposal but would be open to the idea.
Also Sunday, the European Union said it will not participate in the talks. The bloc said foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will be in Beijing at the time.
This is a breaking news update:
The European Union says it will not participate in the U.S.-backed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority due to start on Thursday in Washington.
A spokesman for the blocâ€™s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says she will be in Beijing meeting with Chinese leaders at that time. Spokesman Darren Ennis also said "for the EU as a whole, the focus is on a successful outcome of the talks (and not) on the choreography or who goes to Washington."
Ennis was responding to a statement Friday by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who said it would be "too bad" if the EU were locked out of the peace process.
Ennis said Saturday that "the spotlight should be firmly focused on the talks themselves."