JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday agreed to accelerate peace talks, despite differences over how quickly to tackle the thorny issue of Jerusalem.
Israeli spokesman Mark Regev said Olmert was "very clear" earlier this week when he asserted Abbas had accepted an Israeli suggestion to delay talks on Jerusalem until the end of negotiations on Palestinian statehood.
But the Palestinians disputed his comments, saying Abbas had made no such commitment.
Other core issues the two sides have pledged to tackle include borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Earlier, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, addressing North American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, Fayyad said "not enough has happened" since the US-hosted Middle East peace conference in November.
The UN yesterday urged Israel to halt its "collective punishment" of the 1.5 million population of Gaza to help improve the impoverished territory's economy.
"It is vital that Israel ceases actions of collective punishment, and allows all legitimate and necessary humanitarian and commercial supplies to reach the population," the UN special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, said in Amman.
A 10-year-old boy was killed yesterday and two others wounded in an exchange of fire between Hamas gunmen and Israeli troops in the central Gaza town of Deir el-Balah. Israeli soldiers also killed a Palestinian fighter from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Gaza.
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