(Adds quotes from Abbas-Kouchner news conference, paras 5-7) By Wael al-Ahmad JENIN, West Bank, Oct 4 (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Saturday he feared the world may forget the Middle East peace process while distracted by the U.S. election, a government change in Israel and tension with Iran. Kouchner met Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin and later held talks with President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. On Sunday he will meet Israeli officials. "My concern is, and what I do not want to see, is that the change in the U.S. administration, and the formation of a new government in Israel, as well as the preoccupation with Iran would push everybody to forget the peace process in the region," Kouchner said. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has been nominated to form a new government following the resignation of Ehud Olmert last month under a cloud of corruption allegations, is also Israel's chief negotiator in talks with the Palestinians. Abbas told a news conference with Kouchner later in Ramallah that he was confident Livni would continue peace negotiations. "We feel she may continue in the path towards peace so that the Palestinian state will be established and this will be in the interests of Israel as much as it is an aspiration for the Palestinians," Abbas said. Kouchner said he was "not worried that Livni would abandon her role in the peace negotiations." But Palestinian and Israeli officials and Western diplomats, have said it was most unlikely Israel and the Palestinians could meet the target date of the end of 2008 for a deal set by U.S. President George W. Bush last year. Palestinian officials believe negotiations will be suspended until after a new U.S. president takes office in January and until a new Israeli government is formed. Olmert will stay on as caretaker premier until parliament approves a new government. Abbas told Bush last month that the chances of a deal this year were slim because of wide differences over key issues. Abbas said on Saturday that Israel's offers fell below Palestinian expectations for a viable, contiguous state. "We are working towards achieving the vision of two states ... The two-state solution enjoys international unanimity, we must work to achieve this objective and remove all voices that call for something that contradicts it," he said. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah; writing by Wafa Amr; Editing by Ori Lewis)
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian shepherd Yahya Atta Bani Menna during his funeral in the West Bank village of Aqraba near Nablus September 29, 2008. Israel disputed on Monday Palestinian ...
