Palestine: Abbas - halting settlement "preface" for direct negotiations

FOCUS Information Agency - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Monday that halting settlement and defining a reference for peace are the introduction for launching the direct peace negotiations with Israel, Xinhua informed.

Abbas reiteration was made following a second meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Ramallah. Abbas said the direct talks should lead to establishing the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Gahr Store had earlier on Monday visited in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for two hours, where he visited the commercial crossing point of Kerem Shalom on the borders between the enclave and Israel.

He called on the Israeli government to ease more than three years of a blockade that had been imposed on the costal enclave since Hamas movement seized control of it by force in June 2007.
Store who described the living conditions in the Gaza Strip as "still bad" said that when he meets with Israeli officials, he would ask them to keep easing the blockade.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has been urging the international Quartet for peace in the Middle East to issue a statement that defines a reference for the direct peace negotiations with Israel.