The story

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. Read full article »

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

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All About Middle East Conflict • Ehud Olmert • Mahmoud Abbas