BF2S Forums U.S. launches Middle East peace moves

Reuters wrote:

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush called on Monday for a Middle East peace conference bringing together Israel, the Palestinians and some Arab neighbors and led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Aiming to break years of stalemate and under pressure from Arab allies to pursue the issue, Bush set the conference for later this year and announced $190 million in aid to the Palestinians' Fatah-led government.

Bush said the conference -- meant to pave the way to a Palestinian state alongside Israel -- would take place in the autumn but he specified no date, location or which neighbors would attend.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel would start freeing 250 Palestinian prisoners by week's end. Prisoner releases have bolstered confidence in the past.

Bush said Palestinians faced "a moment of choice" between the Islamist militant group Hamas and Abbas' more moderate vision, and reaffirmed his vision of a Palestinian state at peace with Israel.

"This is a moment of clarity for all Palestinians. Now comes a moment of choice," Bush said in a White House speech. "The alternatives before the Palestinian people are stark."

Bush said the participants in the talks would help review progress on building Palestinian institutions."

Israel has described its decisions to free 250 low-security Palestinian prisoners, mostly from Abbas' secular Fatah faction, and to suspend kill-or-capture missions against 180 Fatah gunmen, as goodwill gestures in support of the new government.