Israelis, Palestinians agree on framework for peace talks

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (CNN) -- Israeli and Palestinian leaders will "immediately launch" peace talks -- aimed at creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel -- and they hope to finish negotiations before 2009, President Bush announced Tuesday.

The leaders agreed Tuesday on a document that will guide those negotiations, Bush said during remarks at the U.S. Naval Academy, where all three leaders attended a U.S.-brokered Mideast summit.

Both sides also agreed to form steering committees, which will begin meeting December 12.

Thereafter, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet every two weeks to follow up on the negotiations and offer assistance, the statement said.

The three leaders are scheduled to meet again Wednesday.

"The Annapolis conference has been the beginning, not the end, of a new serious and substantive effort to achieve peace in the Middle East," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday evening. "This work will be hard, it involves risks and sacrifices for all concerned."

"To be sure, the issues to be resolved by both parties are very challenging," she said. "But difficult to resolve does not mean impossible to resolve."

There were doubts among both Palestinians and Israelis, however, about whether the peace talks would bring any positive results.

In the West Bank, protesters angry about what they called a sell-out by a weak and compromised Palestinian leadership clashed with police.

Police shot and killed one protester in Hebron, CNN's Ben Wedeman reported.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh denounced the summit in a televised address Tuesday.

"The Palestinian people will not be bound by anything the Palestinian Authority agrees to in Annapolis," he said.

On the Israeli side, one newspaper described the meeting as a "summit of low expectations," according to The Associated Press. Demonstrators carrying signs that read "Hands off Israel" gathered for a protest in Jerusalem on the eve of the talks.

But some Israelis admitted there were few other options.

"We don't have another choice. We are doomed to be here together, the Israelis and Palestinians, so what can we do?" one woman said. Watch the reaction in the Mideast »

Back in Washington, there were concerns that a work plan would not be agreed upon. Olmert and Abbas showed up to meet Bush on Tuesday morning without a joint statement, a senior State Department official said.

Bush then called on the Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers to huddle with Rice and come up with a statement, which they did as the three leaders met separately, the official said.

The document does not contain specifics about the contentious issues that divide the Israelis and Palestinians, Bush said.

Rather, it focuses on principles that will guide future talks, such as a commitment to "bring an end to bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict" and a promise to "propagate a culture of peace and nonviolence," Bush said. Watch Bush reveal hopes for an end to bloodshed »

The document is intended to provide guidelines for talks on the testier sticking points, such as settlements, timelines, the role of the international community, the fate of Jerusalem and the labeling of Israel as a "Jewish state."

Arabs and Palestinians have opposed calling Israel a Jewish state because, they say, it would preclude many refugees from returning to Israel, and the label fails to account for thousands of Arabs residing there.

Some of those issues are addressed in the so-called "road map" to peace established in 2003 by the Mideast Quartet composed of the U.S., U.N., Russia and European Union. Bush said Tuesday that Abbas and Olmert have agreed "to immediately implement their respective obligations" under the "road map."

The issue of Jerusalem also poses problems. After Bush's announcement, Abbas said Tuesday that he will not back down on his demand that East Jerusalem be named the capital of any future Palestinian state. Nor will he relent on his calls for Israel to dismantle its outposts in the West Bank, he said.

"I must defend the right of our people to see a new dawn," Abbas said, calling also for the release of Palestinian prisoners, the lifting of roadblocks and the removal of what he called the "separation wall" that surrounds the West Bank.

Olmert spoke after Abbas, saying that Israel was "prepared to make a painful compromise, rife with risks, in order to realize these aspirations" of peace.

Olmert said he had "hesitations and doubts" about attending Tuesday's summit, but Israel nonetheless "will be part of an international mechanism" to establish the guidelines and boundaries for a future Palestinian state.

Olmert called on the Arab nations in attendance to also make concessions, namely to end their boycott of Israel. See who's there and what they want »

"It does not help you, and it hurts us," Olmert said, citing his nation's peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan as "a solid foundation of stability and hope in our region."

Earlier, an Israeli official attending the U.S.-brokered Mideast summit said Israel is "ready now for a deal."

Olmert and Abbas have "very good chemistry," the official said. The two leaders met Monday night to hammer out a statement that could guide peace negotiations but could not come to an agreement.

The official said some of the 40 nations represented at the summit have offered Israel a chilly welcome, but their participation alone is encouraging.

"The Saudis won't shake our hands; the Syrians won't say nice things about us," the Israeli official said. "But they're here."

The coming months will be crucial to the peace deal's fate, the official said. That sentiment was echoed by Bush during remarks later in the day.

Bush said that while Tuesday's summit is an important event, it is merely a starting block for future negotiations that he hopes will ultimately yield a Palestinian state existing peacefully alongside Israel. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Zain Verjee, Jill Dougherty and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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