Ehud Olmert arrived in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea for talks with Hosni Mubarak amid preparations for a Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, in the United States, next week.
"I hope a final agreement with the Palestinians will be reached in 2008," Olmert told a press conference after talks with the Egyptian leader.
The Washington-sponsored conference aims to re-launch formal peace talks between Israel and Palestinian authorities, interrupted following growing violence seven years ago.
Murabak said he hoped that the Annapolis meeting would "establish foundations" for peace and "ensure the success of the conference."
The Palestinians want a detailed agreement specifying each party's commitment concerning key points, such as future borders, the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, and Israeli settlements, while the Israelis are looking for a more general guideline. Israel wants to retain control over East Jerusalem and key settlements in the West Bank as part of an eventual agreement.
Drafting the joint statement was on the agenda of Olmert's meeting on Monday with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem, but Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, called the talks "difficult," adding that "differences remain."
Israel's newspaper Haaretz cited unidentified sources in Jerusalem on Monday as saying that the summit could end without a joint declaration as there were problems between Israel and the Palestinians over the way negotiations with Israel and the United States are being conducted.
One of the main issues is the establishment of a tripartite committee, comprising Israeli, Palestinian and American officials, to monitor the implementation of the first stage of the road map.
The Haaretz paper quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that "a situation is certainly possible by which there will be no joint declaration and we will have to make do with two separate statements."
Abbas is due to brief leaders of the Arab League in Cairo on Friday who will then decide whether to attend the U.S.-backed conference. Some Arab nations are threatening to boycott the talks, which are backed by the Middle East Quartet, comprising the United States, the UN, the EU, and Russia.
