Mideast accord impossible in Bush term: Peres

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TOKYO, Nov 22 (AFP): A final Middle East peace accord will be impossible to reach before United States (US) President George W Bush leaves office in January 2009, Israeli President Shimon Peres said in remarks published Thursday.
"It is theoretically possible to reach an agreement during the term of President Bush but it is practically impossible," Peres told Japan's Tokyo Shimbun in an interview in Jerusalem.
The US plans to hold a peace conference next week in Annapolis near Washington involving officials from more than 40 countries including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
"Nobody has hopes for its outcome, but it will be the beginning of new peace negotiations," Peres was quoted as saying.
More important discussions on major disputes, such as the status of Palestinian refugees, would come after the conference, he said.
The remarks came a week after Peres, in an address to the Turkish parliament, hailed the conference as "an historic opportunity that should not turn into an historic failure".
The Annapolis meeting is aimed at jumpstarting peace talks some seven years after the collapse of the Camp David talks, which were brokered by then US president Bill Clinton during his last months in office.
Intensive negotiations have so far failed to produce an agreement on the Annapolis meeting's joint declaration, which is meant to serve as the basis for talks on a permanent settlement.