News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have hit an impasse on the timetable for implementing the creation of a new Arab state that would shrink Israel's borders. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is pressuring for a strict timetable before a scheduled major Middle East conference to be held in the United States in two months.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who already has conceded to almost every demand by Abbas since he succeeded Yasser Arafat more than two years ago, so far has refused to agree to set out specific dates for carrying out certain steps. Israel's previous concessions generally have not been paralleled by the PA's execution of steps to control terrorism, leaving the Prime Minister with a quickly growing opposition within his coalition government.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said Israel wanted any timetables to be "performance-based," according to Reuters News Agency.