In what appears to be a last ditch effort by the U.S. to sew up a peace deal between Israel the the Palestinian Authority, PA chief negotiator Ahmed Qurie said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had invited Israeli and PA negotiators to a summit to discuss outstanding issues. The discussions would take place in a series of meetings in New York and Washington.

Qurie said that it was still possible to reach a deal by the end of the term of U.S. President George W. Bush. But he said that the two sides were more or less where they were eight years ago, when Fatah terror chief Yasser Arafat rejected proposals by then Prime Minister Ehud Barak to hand over 90% of Judea and Samaria to the formation of an Arab state. Disputing recent Israeli reports, he said that the PA had totally rejected all proposals by Israel to give the PA territory within Green Line Israel in exchange for the settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.