Abbas says all issues raised in talks

All key issues were discussed at a new round of peace talks with Israel, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas says.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas says all key issues were discussed at a new round of peace talks with Israel, but declined to elaborate because of an agreed news blackout.

"We can't speak now about what happened," he told a joint press conference with UN chief Ban Ki-moon in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday.

At the request of Washington, Israel and the Palestinians have so far maintained a strict news blackout on the US-brokered talks.

"We discussed the issues which are always on the table: borders, Jerusalem, settlements," Abbas said.

"Until now we didn't speak about what happened (in the talks) and when there is something we shall tell you."

Negotiators met for about five hours in Jerusalem on Wednesday in a new round of direct peace talks, which broke down in September 2010 in a bitter row over Jewish settlements.

Ban called on both sides to avoid actions that could disrupt the fragile negotiations.

In Amman earlier, he urged Israelis and Palestinians to show "patience" to give the peace talks a chance of success, Jordan's state-run Petra news agency reported.

He "called on the Israelis and the Palestinians to have patience and do all that they can for the success of their negotiations and achieve the needed progress with the help of the international community".

Ban, who is to meet both Israel's prime minister and president on Friday, said he was pleased "to visit the state of Palestine".

The UN General Assembly on November 29 upgraded Palestine to the status of non-member observer state by a vote of 138 votes in favour, nine against and 41 abstentions.

Israel maintains that Palestinian statehood can only be obtained through a negotiated settlement of their decades-old conflict.


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Source: AAP



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