US envoy calls for 'immediate' talks

     US President Barack Obama wants "immediate" talks between the Palestinians and Israel to forge a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement, US envoy George Mitchell was quoted by Reuters as saying on Monday. En route to the Middle East, Mitchell said such talks were aimed at reaching "a comprehensive peace and normalization of relations" between Israel and its neighbors, which would also serve "the security interests of the United States.""The president has told me to exert all efforts to create the circumstance when the parties can begin immediate discussions," Mitchell told reporters at the start of a Palestinian donors' conference in the Norwegian capital. Mitchell said the purpose of the donors' meeting was to "provide support for the Palestinian Authority" and pave the way for a two-state solution with Israel. "It's important that there is a building of institutions and governmental capacity so that at an early time there can be an independent and viable Palestinian state," Mitchell said. Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said at the conference that recent political uncertainty regarding any Middle East peace deal had hurt fund-raising efforts for the Palestinians. PA officials said the Palestinian Authority will not return to the negotiating table with Israel unless Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu endorses the two-state solution and freezes construction in the West Bank settlements. The officials said Abbas had relayed this position to the US during his recent visit to Washington, where he held talks with Obama. One of the officials expressed hope that the looming crisis between the Obama administration and Netanyahu over the future of the peace process would lead to the collapse of the Israeli government. An exiled Hamas leader urged US President Barack Obama on Monday to talk directly with the terrorist group, saying it is the representative of the Palestinian people and the American president's drive for Mideast peace is impossible without them.The US and its European allies also want Hamas to recognize Israel, another step the group has refused to take. The Obama administration should change that position, Abu Marzouk said, "because they know that without Hamas their efforts will not succeed." Hamas, which won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election, has striven for international recognition. Most international players in Mideast peace efforts, however, have shunned the group because of its stance toward Israel and its refusal to accept past agreements signed between its more moderate Palestinian rivals and the Jewish state. (19,42)