( AP ) - The U.N.'s top Middle East envoy said there are "signs of hope" that Israel and the Palestinians can agree to revive the stalled peace process in time for a related U.S.-sponsored international conference in November.
Michael Williams, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, on Wednesday said the conference, the revival of a pan-Arab peace initiative, and, perhaps above all, the dialogue between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are among the encouraging signals.
The talks between Abbas and Olmert, most recently on Tuesday, and the reform efforts of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad "have created growing expectations," Williams told the U.N. Security Council.
"We cannot afford a new failure in the efforts to revive the Arab-Israeli peace process," he said. "There is a hope now which has been absent for almost seven years. A setback at this stage could have serious consequences."
The Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday tackled core issues that have tormented Mideast peacemakers for decades: what the final borders of a Palestinian state would be; whether Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation would be allowed to return to their original homes in Israel along with their descendants; and whether the holy city of Jerusalem could be shared.
It was the first time Olmert and Abbas addressed the issues in depth and represented a key building block for the planned November conference. Williams said the Abbas-Olmert meetings are expected to continue, with the next meeting slated for Sept. 10, ahead of a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, told the council "there is at this time a significant opportunity before us to end the Israeli occupation and towards the attainment of the two-state solution."
Israel's U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, told the council that Abbas and Olmert were working together and discussing "mutual issues concerning Israel and the Palestinians living side-by-side."
He said the talks were continuing despite danger posed by extremists from the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, and Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.
After the meeting, Williams told reporters he was encouraged that countries across the world, from very different political backgrounds, "saw some signs of hope."
"I think with goodwill and political courage - and it will require very substantial amounts of both of those commodities - we could see real progress in the latter part of this year in a way that we haven't, I'm afraid, for the last seven years," Williams said.
He told the council that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will host a meeting of the Quartet of international Mideast mediators at U.N. headquarters on Sept. 23 to take stock of the Palestinian-Israeli discussions and prepare for the peace conference.
Top officials from the Quartet - the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia - will host a dinner that night for the Arab League committee that has been promoting a pan-Arab plan for peace with Israel. The Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers made a historic trip to Israel in late July to present the plan, saying it offers Israel "security, recognition and acceptance" by its Middle East neighbors.