PARIS, July 13: Israel and the Palestinians have never been closer to a peace deal, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday following talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Olmert told reporters that problems still had to be overcome and said it was time for both sides to make tough decisions. “It seems to me that we have never been as close to the possibility of reaching an accord as we are today,” he told a news conference standing alongside Abbas and Sarkozy.

“It seems that we have reached the time when the Palestinian authorities and the Israelis have to take serious and important decisions that will finally take us to where we have never been before,” he added, without giving details.

Olmert and Abbas launched US-sponsored peace negotiations last year with the stated aim of achieving an agreement before President George W. Bush steps down in January. But progress has been stymied by violence and mutual recrimination.

Sarkozy, whose country assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1, visited Israel and the occupied West Bank last month as part of efforts to facilitate the negotiations.

“The Israelis want peace, the Palestinians want peace. The role of Europe and France is to help peace,” Sarkozy said.

Abbas welcomed the French intercession and voiced hope “that we can arrive at peace within a number of months”.

Speaking through an interpreter, he told the news conference: “We have started detailed negotiations with Mr Olmert… We are totally serious. Both of us are serious.”—Reuters