The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Sharm El-Sheik

Israeli, Palestinian and international negotiators pledged Sunday to continue peace talks launched last year by President Bush, even though the quest for peace will certainly outlast his administration.

But future talks will be held in an increasingly uncertain terrain, with the prospect of a hawk coming to power in Israel's February parliamentary elections and deeply divided Palestinian factions controlling the West Bank and Gaza. It is also unclear how high Mideast peacemaking will figure on Barack Obama's agenda.

Despite the impending failure to meet the year-end target set at a November 2007 peace conference in Annapolis, Md., Israel and the Palestinians affirmed their commitment to the process.

The chief negotiators "asked that the international community support the parties' sustained efforts in the framework of the Annapolis process," the international diplomatic quartet of Mideast peacemakers said following several hours of talks at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

At the same time, the Quartet - the United States, the United Nations, the EU and Russia - said in a joint statement that it "emphasized the importance of continuity of the peace process."

"I believe that the Annapolis process is now the international community's answer and the parties' answer to how we finally end the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters after the talks.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat praised Sunday's meeting as a positive step toward making the peace process irreversible. But he also said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, had warned Israel the next few months are a sensitive time.