President Bush, right, conducts a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, bottom left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, center left, at the Middle East peace summit. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, next to the president, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, center, and others, look on. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Bush Holds One-Day Talks on Middle East Peace

President George Bush held a peace conference at Annapolis, Maryland, in November to help two foreign leaders bring peace to the Middle East during his last year in office.

Bush announced on November 27 that leaders from Israel and Palestine agreed to reach a final peace agreement by the end of 2008. Bush will leave office less than a month after the end of 2008.

The President and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice invited leaders from Israel and the Palestinian Authority to attend the meeting. More than 40 other nations also attended.

Some experts said the conference was important because 14 Arab states attended. Many Arab nations refused to attend past meetings with Israel.

Israel wants peace, end to hatred
The Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, told the leaders that his nation wants to have normal relations with its neighboring Arab countries. He said his nation wants peace. He also said Israel demands an end to terrorist attacks and hatred.

"We are prepared to make a painful compromise," Olmert said. He added that the compromise has many risks for Israel.

Bush made little effort to settle differences between Israel and Palestine while in office. But Secretary Rice made eight trips to Israel in the last year to get both sides to attend the conference.

One critic said Bush waited until the eighth year of his presidency to make a serious effort. Yet peace in the Middle East was a top issue for presidents for 40 years. The critic says the latest agreement might be "too little, too late."

The plan announced by Bush at the start of the one-day meeting did not make everyone happy. The foreign minister of Germany says the new deal does not go far enough for real change to take place in the Middle East.

He says he cannot say the plan will work until progress is made on the important issues.

Bush offered same plan in 2003
The plan is much like one Bush put together in 2003. But that plan was not put into effect.

The latest plan sets a schedule that will require most of the difficult issues to be settled toward the end of 2008.

The toughest issues will be deciding borders for a Palestinian state, security and the fate of Palestinian refugees who want to return. Another issue will center on the city of Jerusalem. The city is the capital of Israel. But Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their capital.

Second meeting held next day
Bush met with Olmert and Abbas at the White House in Washington, D.C., a day after the meeting in Annapolis.
The three leaders then met with reporters. Bush was the only one to make a short statement.

"Yesterday was an important day, and it was a hopeful beginning," Bush said. "No matter how important yesterday was, it is not nearly as important as tomorrow and the days beyond."

Abbas represents about half of the Palestinians in the area. His organization is strongest in the West Bank. His group lost control of the Gaza Strip in June in fighting with a rival group called Hamas. Bush refused to let Hamas attend the Annapolis conference.

Almost 1.5 million Palestinians live in Gaza. Israel has closed the border crossings into the Gaza Strip for months.