Abbas, Bush meet today to assess ME peace efforts

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NEW YORK, Sept 24 (AFP): United States (US) President George W Bush and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas meet Thursday to assess Middle East peace efforts that are not expected to yield a hoped-for breakthrough by year's end.
Bush, the first sitting US president to call for the creation of a Palestinian state, now seems unlikely to achieve that high priority before leaving office in January, and even major progress seems doubtful.
Political upheaval in Israel, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has resigned in the face of corruption scandal, has cast further uncertainty over what can be done in just four months.
Abbas, in New York for the UN General Assembly, has openly acknowledged that he has little hope of an imminent deal but stresses that he will keep working as he waits to see the new Israeli government and a new US president.
Continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and a lack of breakthroughs on sensitive core issues like the fate of Jerusalem have dogged the talks since they were revived at a US-sponsored conference in Annapolis in 2007 with the goal of sealing a deal in 2008.
But Palestinian officials say they will not be squeezed into accepting a partial peace deal that does not satisfy their hopes or defers the toughest issues.