The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

President George W. Bush on Monday launched the biggest Middle East peace initiative of his two terms in office ahead of a conference which has raised hopes and recriminations in the Arab world.

Bush said Sunday he was "personally committed" to resolving the decades-old Middle East conflict.

He will separately host Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas ahead of the peace conference in nearby Annapolis which starts Tuesday and will be attended by about 40 countries including Israel's leading Arab foe Syria.

Olmert and Abbas are trying to agree a joint statement to unblock the peace process that has been frozen since president Bill Clinton tried to broker a final settlement near the end of his presidency in 2000.

Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP that Bush is throwing his full weight behind the peace efforts in order to advance his vision of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

"President Bush has always been deeply involved in the talks. His presence at the Annapolis meeting and his two-state vision offers a strong support for our and the Palestinians' ability to mark progress in the talks," she said.

Abbas's advisor Nabil Shaath said that "this is an opportunity to return the spotlight to the Arab-Israeli question."

But major differences remain between the Israelis and Palestinians over core issues like the status of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Criticism of the Saudi presence at the conference by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a blunt refusal by the Islamist Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip to recognize meeting's decisions have also clouded the preparations.

There have been painstaking negotiations over the joint statement outlining a solution to the conflict which the two sides wish to present at the conference.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday met Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian former prime minister Ahmed Qorei in a last-ditch bid to unblock the talks over the document.

Qorei said late Sunday that "we are working seriously in order to reach a joint statement." But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack cautioned that he would "not be surprised" if they failed to bridge their gaps before the conference starts.

Bush has worked to persuade some 50 countries and organizations -- including key Arab states -- to attend.

"I remain personally committed to implementing my vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," the president said in a statement.

In a coup for US diplomacy, a reluctant Saudi Arabia will sit at the same table with the Jewish state for the first time to discuss Middle East peacemaking.

Saudi Arabia has never recognized Israel and no senior official of the kingdom has held public talks with Israeli officials except for meetings at the United Nations and a 1996 international summit on fighting terrorism.

The Iranian leader telephoned King Abdullah to tell him that he wished Saudi Arabia was not taking part in the Annapolis conference, Iran's official media said.

AP, Islamabad

Returning from exile to Pakistan under emergency rule, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Sunday he was determined to rid the country of dictatorship.

President Pervez Musharraf, the army general who deposed Sharif in a coup eight years ago, declared emergency powers on Nov. 3, but agreed to allow Sharif to return home from Saudi Arabia.

"We want democracy and nothing else," Sharif told the BBC by telephone on arriving back in his hometown Lahore from the Saudi city of Medina. "I am here to play my role and also make my own efforts to rid the country of dictatorship."

AP report adds: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif prepared to meet a Monday deadline to register for Pakistan's key January parliamentary elections, a day after he returned from exile to an ecstatic welcome from thousands of his supporters. Sharif has said he is registering to keep his options open, but that he will boycott the vote unless President Gen. Pervez Musharraf ends emergency rule, frees opponents and restores the Supreme Court, which was purged of independent judges.

Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, was to register in the main court complex in Lahore - his hometown and political power base - at the head of a rally of supporters.

AFP, Kabul

Nearly 80 Taliban rebels were killed in a series of air raids by international military forces near eastern Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, a provincial government spokesman said Sunday.

About 65 were killed in a single air assault late Saturday in eastern Paktia province on a "large group of Taliban," said Din Mohammad Darvish, a spokesman for the local administration.

Four others were killed in a second assault targeting a vehicle carrying rebels in the same region of the province, Patan district, and four in a nearby area, he said.

Another three were killed in an air strike near Gardez, capital of the restive province, he said.

"Altogether 76 Taliban were killed in separate air strikes by coalition forces," Darvish told AFP.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and separate US-led coalition could only immediately confirm the last incident which they said was targeted at three militants spotted planting a bomb.

Reuters, Moscow

Moscow is ready for dialogue on the latest U.S. proposals for a planned missile shield in Europe, Interfax news agency quoted Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov as telling a radio station on Monday.

The United States submitted a package of documents to Russia last week setting out compromise proposals on its missile shield, part of which it wants to locate in eastern Europe.

"The American side has sent us a letter with proposals on the missile defense shield," Ivanov told the Russian News Service radio station. "We are ready for dialogue."

Ivanov's comment was more upbeat than earlier Russian reaction to the proposals.

Last week the Russian foreign ministry said it was disappointed by the proposals -- first laid out when U.S. Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice visited Moscow in October.

Washington wants to station interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as part of a shield it says is designed to protect Europe from "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.

But the plans have angered Moscow which says it is the shield's real target. The Kremlin has called the U.S. plan a threat to its national security.

AFP, Gaza City

Hamas said on Monday that the Palestinians will not be bound by any decisions taken at this week's US-hosted Middle East peace conference.

"The decisions taken at Annapolis are not binding on the Palestinian people, who have not authorised anyone -- either Arab or Palestinian -- to erase their rights," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP. The Islamists, blacklisted as a terror group by both the European Union and the United States, have not been invited to the peace conference which opens on Tuesday in Annapolis, near Washington.

Later on Monday Hamas, along with members of the smaller Islamic Jihad group, were to convene a "counter-conference" to the US peace meeting to warn the Palestinian leadership not to make any concessions to the Israelis.

"Our conference will carry the message of the dangers of a normalisation of ties with Israel," he said. "The Palestinian cause should not serve as a vehicle for Arabs and the international community to normalise their relations with the Israeli enemy."

AFP, Tulkarem

Israeli troops killed three armed Palestinians on Sunday, one of them in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank and two in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, officials on both sides said.

In the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem, Israeli troops shot dead Mohammad Qozah, 25, of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group loosely linked with president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, medics and Palestinian security sources said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops entered the Tulkarem refugee camp in search of two militants and shot at the men as they tried to flee. One of the men was killed and the other wounded and evacuated to hospital in Israel.

A statement by the Israeli army later said that Qozah "was recently involved in an attempted suicide attack inside Israel" as well as attacks with explosives and automatic weapons against soldiers in Tulkarem.

AFP, Dompu

A 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumbawa island Monday, killing three, injuring 45 and damaging hundreds of homes, officials said as aftershocks rattled nerves.

Some buildings collapsed in Dompu and Bima districts as officials rushed to reach remoter areas and frightened residents clustered outdoors.

Health ministry spokesman Rustam Pakaya told AFP that three people had died, including a five-year-old boy, while 45 people had been injured. He did not provide any further details on the fatalities.

Most of the injured were being treated at the general hospital in Dompu, one of the worst-affected districts, said a doctor there, Suriyani.

"We received 34 people injured. Some with slight injuries have gone home already but some 20 people are still under hospital treatment, with broken bones, open wounds and head injuries caused by collapsing walls," she told AFP.

Siti Hajar, Bima health ministry chief, told AFP that one person had been hospitalised and 10 others had slight injuries.

She said 20 houses had been destroyed and hundreds more damaged.

Suhartomo, her counterpart in Dompu, said that 10 houses had collapsed in Dompu town and about 90 percent had suffered cracks. Officials were headed to the worst hit area of Kilo to check conditions there, he added.

AFP, Washington

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met the heads of the Israeli and Palestinian negotiation teams over the weekend, as part of last-ditch efforts to bridge gaps ahead of key Middle East peace talks. As President George W. Bush said he was "personally committed" to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, his top diplomat met Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei in Washington. They were seeking to hammer out differences over a document to go before the conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which seeks to kickstart the Middle East peace process virtually frozen for seven years. Livni and Qorei held a preparatory meeting with their teams ahead of the three-way meeting over dinner, after which the top Palestinian negotiator said "we are working seriously to reach a joint statement.

AFP, Tehran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Saudi King Abdullah that he "wished" the kingdom was not taking part in a US-hosted conference for peace in the Middle East, state media reported Monday. "I wish the name of Saudi Arabia was not among those attending the Annapolis conference," Ahmadinejad was quoted as telling Abdullah in a telephone conversation late Sunday, according to the state-run IRNA agency. "Arab countries should be watchful in the face of the plots and deception of the Zionist enemy," he added. "The US government, which is an accomplice to Zionist crimes, cannot play the role of saviour by hosting the Annapolis conference," he continued. Israeli and Palestinian leaders are to meet in Annapolis, Maryland, on Tuesday in a bid to kick-start negotiations for a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel, Iran's arch regional enemy which Tehran does not recognise.

Reuters, Moscow

Russia's upper house of parliament named March 2, 2008, as the date of the next presidential election on Monday, opening the way for candidates to start registering to run. The Federation Council upper house voted unanimously to confirm the date. Under Russian law, the election has to happen around this time but the upper house sets the exact date. Its vote officially launches preparations for the election. The election is seen as a watershed because President Vladimir Putin has said he will be stepping down and handing over to a successor in line with a constitutional ban on a head of state serving more than two consecutive terms. "The date for the presidential election is March 2, 2008," Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov told reporters. Russians and foreign investors have been preoccupied for months with two questions: Will Putin step down as he has said and if he does, who will he endorse to replace him?

AFP, Kathmandu

Nepal's former rebel leader Prachanda has threatened to take up arms again if his demand for immediate abolition of the monarchy is not met, state media reported. Prachanda and the Maoists have been wrangling with mainstream political parties over their demands for the impoverished Himalayan nation to be immediately declared a republic. The Maoists formally ended their decade-long insurgency that claimed over 13,000 lives after striking a landmark peace deal in November last year. The ultra leftists joined hands with the political parties after weeks of massive pro-democracy protests forced King Gyanendra to end his 14 months of direct rule in April 2006. "We hoped that following 10 years of the people's war and 19-day people's movement (the pro-democracy protests) we should not fight anymore. However, we will be compelled to do so in case the parties in government and its head fail to understand this," the Rising Nepal quoted Prachanda as saying on Sunday.