News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are meeting in Jerusalem at this hour. Foreign Minster Tzipi Livni and senior PA negotiator Ahmed Qureia also are participating in the discussions.
 
The meeting follows a breakfast conversation between the prime minister and American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. No details were released, and unlike previous visits, she did not hold a news conference following the talks. The Prime Minister's spokesman said that the meeting with Secretary Rice lasted for approximately one hour.

She preceded her talks with unusually harsh comments on Israeli checkpoints and barriers, many of which the Prime Minister promised to remove despite their having been maintained as a security measure against Arab terrorists reaching Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and urban centers.