JERUSALEM, Sept 15: Israel is prepared to express sorrow for the plight of Palestinians who became refugees when the country was created, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said.

“We will participate in expressing sorrow for what happened to them, but also for what happened to us, the suffering of hundreds of thousands of Jews who were driven out of Arab countries,” Mr Olmert told a parliamentary committee on Monday.

Palestinians have demanded that Israel accept responsibility for the suffering of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the war that followed Israel’s creation in 1948.

Mr Olmert spoke at a closed session of the Israeli parliamentary foreign affairs and defence committee.

“Under no circumstances will there be a right of return” for refugees into Israel, he said. He said Israel would be “ready to be part of an international mechanism that will resolve the problem.”

The UN estimates that the refugees and their descendants now number around 4.5 million people. Facing a series of corruption investigations, the prime minister has said he will step down after his Kadima party elects a new leader on Wednesday.

Mr Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to meet on Tuesday to discuss peace talks.

WARNING: Mr Olmert warned against delaying a peace deal with the Palestinians.“Every day that goes by without our reaching a deal with the Palestinians is a day we may regret in the future,” an aide quoted the once-hawkish Olmert as telling parliament’s powerful foreign affairs and defence committee.