By Adam Entous JERUSALEM, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, spurred by a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, plan on Monday to open the most serious peace talks in seven years despite differences over what each side aims to achieve. It took nearly seven weeks to start so-called final-status talks, announced at a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, underscoring the hurdles facing Bush in getting a statehood agreement in his final 12 months in office. Officials said the chief negotiators, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, would meet in Jerusalem for their first talks meant to tackle the thorniest issues -- statehood borders, the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas authorised them to begin final-status talks but the leaders remain at odds over the scope of the deal they are trying to reach. In his first presidential visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank last week, Bush set the goal of signing a peace treaty in 2008. Israeli officials said Olmert was seeking a deal that would outline a "framework" for a future Palestinian state with implementation delayed until the Palestinians can ensure Israel's security. Abbas wants a final peace treaty enabling him to declare a Palestinian state by the end of 2008. "All the issues will be discussed ... We told Bush that we will not accept delaying any of the final-status issues," Abbas said on Sunday. But substantive talks on issues like Jerusalem could put Olmert's coalition government in jeopardy. The right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party has threatened to pull out, possibly as early as this week. The first final-status talks since 2001 were supposed to get under way soon after the peace conference in Annapolis in late November. But the Palestinians demanded Israel first commit itself to ceasing all settlement activity, as called for under the long-stalled "road map" peace plan. Under U.S. pressure, Olmert responded with a de-facto halt to new construction in settlements in the West Bank, but he has not called off plans to build hundreds of new homes in an area near Jerusalem known to Israelis as Har Homa and to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim. Olmert said Bush had assured him during his visit that the Palestinians would need to meet their security obligations under the road map before any peace deal was implemented. It is unclear how Olmert and Abbas can reach a deal. Abbas wields little power beyond the West Bank after Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. Weakened by the 2006 Lebanon war, Olmert could face new calls to resign at the end of the month when a commission of inquiry issues its final report on the conflict. While Bush has called settlement expansion an "impediment", doubts remain over how much pressure he would be willing to put on key ally Israel to make compromises. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Richard Williams)
An Israeli soldier fires a tear gas canister at Palestinian stone throwers during a protest against the construction of Israel's controversial barrier near the West Bank village of Beit Ommar near ...
