The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Jerusalem

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted Sunday that the gap between Israel and the Palestinians can be bridged and that a landmark Middle East peace deal is achieveable.

After talks in Jerusalem and Bethlehem with leaders from both sides, Brown said he was confident that all outstanding issues preventing an agreement could be hammered out. Brown clashed with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert over his demand to freeze the building of settlements in the West Bank and pledged new aid to the Palestinians as part of efforts to kick-start their economy . Brown was making his first visit to Israel and the West Bank since becoming premier in June last year. US-sponsored talks between the two sides are aimed at resolving the conflict before US President George W. Bush leaves office next January.

However, the talks have become bogged down amid violence in the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the expansion of Jewish settlements.

Asked by AFP whether he was confident that a deal could be reached on schedule, Brown said: "When I say the difficulties can be bridged, that the problems that I have had described to me I believe can be solved, then I think there is an opportunity within our grasp.

"There is a sense from what I have heard today that people feel that they can get to a solution. The sooner that happens, the better. I'm urging people to move forward with as great speed as possible."

He told reporters that stakeholders should not lose sight of the "big prize" of a comprehensive settlement.

"What separates the sides is not unbridgeable. My own view is that there is good will to move these things forward.

"My advice is to concentrate on the main elements of a final peace agreement buttall the central issues that are preventing a resolution of the whole Israeli-Palestinian issue will have to be sorted out."

Brown crossed Israel's separation barrier for talks in the West Bank town of Bethlehem with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad.