WEST BANK: Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah

Record ID: 561782

  • Title: WEST BANK: Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah
  • Date: 21st December 2006
  • Summary: ABBAS AND STOLTENBERG ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE ABBAS'S AIDES LISTENING
  • Embargoed: 5th January 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAADYWLW7NCLV97EJ36EQEBFMZ2
  • Story Text: Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg met on Wednesday (December 20) with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
    The Prime Minister arrived on a two-days visit to the region, where he met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to demonstrate his support in promoting regional peace talks.
    Abbas reaffirmed his stance to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
    "We are working hardly and seriously on the arrangements for this meeting. We and him want a serious and improved meeting so we could rely on its success and continue with these meetings. When these arrangements are done, we have no doubts that the meeting will take place as soon as possible," Abbas told reporters at a joint press conference with the Norwegian Prime Minister.
    Stoltenberg met earlier with Israeli Prime MInister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem. Olmert told reporters he would hold a long-awaited summit with the Palestinian Abbas in the coming days.
    The meeting would be the first formal talks between the two leaders since Olmert took over as prime minister in January.
    Stoltenberg's visit comes as tension mounts between rival Palestinian factions in Gaza.
    Ten Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Abbas called on Saturday for early elections to break a political deadlock with the Hamas government and get Western sanctions lifted.
    "We have kept the door open for forming a technocrat government that could help end the siege. I call on our Palestinian people will all the factions to show responsibility and restraint," Abbas said at the press conference.
    Stoltenberg expressed his support in dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians and in efforts to bridge between rival Palestinian factions.
    "This is indeed a very critical and trying time for the Palestinian people and I am here to demonstrate my support to the people of the Palestinian areas and I also support the efforts you are doing to solve the challenges you are meeting and to solve the political crisis you are facing," Stoltenberg said in Ramallah.
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