White House: Palestinians and Israelis have made halting progress

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
"The Palestinians and the Israelis have made halting progress," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday before a meeting between US President George W. Bush and his Palestinian Authority counterpart Mahmoud Abbas in Washington. Perino said both sides took "a few steps forward" after the Annapolis conference last November launched a new round of talks and Bush visited the Middle East in January. "There has been a stall in that," Perino said. "While conversations have been ongoing between the two, the tensions still remain high on many of the issues, including the road map issues, one of them being settlements."