Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council visit a local market during a tour of the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem. (Mouid Ashqar, Maan Images)

Five months after the U.S. hosted the Annapolis conference to push for a decisive Israeli-Palestinian peace, negotiations between the two sides have shown no visible progress.

As President George W. Bush races to ink a deal before his term expires in January of next year, disagreements remain over the final-status issues and the territorial integrity of a future Palestinian state.

Following the latest round of talks last week in the U.S. capital between President Mahmoud Abbas and Bush, the Palestinian negotiating team appeared pessimistic about any durable prospect for peace, despite assurances from Bush himself to the contrary.

Unable to hide his frustration last Friday, chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat gave an ominous warning to an audience of journalists: "If we don't have an agreement by 2008, we stand a chance of disappearing," he said.

"The issues are very clear cut and you can't beg peace from anybody. I did not wake up one morning and feel my conscience for the Israeli people suffering to seek negotiations with them, and I don't think they woke up one morning and felt their conscience aching for my suffering," said Erakat.

"[Israelis] know that if they want to continue with the pattern of behaviour of creating facts on the ground, and dictating and negotiating among themselves, and then whisper to me, 'boy, we know what's best for you,' that's not going to work."

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He described the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in West Bank, the heart of a future Palestinian state, as one of the main obstacles to achieving a deal.

"On the major issues, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. Throughout the history of man, negotiations, communications, are a reflection of needs, that's it," he said. "If the Israelis have an interest and a need to have peace, they know what it takes. It's a Palestinian state under 1967 borders."

While he supported Bush's vision for a future state, Erakat urged all sides to translate the principles into a realistic political track. "We hope Bush will get used to saying the numbers, 1-9-6-7, because that's how you define Palestine," he said.

Israel has long held the position that it will never return to the borders held before the 1967 war in which it captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of a future state.

Abbas' talks in Washington last week underscored more problems: "We heard from the Americans that Israel would not accept the return of Palestinian refugees, Jerusalem would be divided, Israel wants to annex settlement blocs, and so in short, what we are being offered is much less than the 1967 borders," a senior Abbas aide told the Reuters news agency.

To read the full article please visit Inter Press Service.