HELD AL QUDS: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday he was determined to strike a peace accord with the Palestinians, saying the current leadership was the best to negotiate with.
"No political consideration will prevent me from wanting to obtain an agreement with the Palestinian Authority," Olmert told a security conference in Herzliya near Tel Aviv.
"I don't know if it is possible to conclude an agreement this year, but the current Palestinian leadership is the best one to talk to about peace, even if it is a weak one," he said.
Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas pledged at US-hosted talks in late November to aim for a peace agreement by the end of 2008, that would pave the way for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
"We don't have the right to miss the opportunity, however fragile it is, to increase the prospects of peace and, as prime minister, I don't have the moral right to run away from my duty to work towards it," Olmert said.
He also said that he was "ready to pursue, with no let up, the fight against terrorism and terrorist leaders" both in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and in the Abbas-administered West Bank.
In the face of persistent militant rocket and fire from Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade on the territory last Thursday that sparked an international outcry.
It has also carried out a spate of deadly air and ground attacks on the territory that have killed at least 38 Palestinians -- most of them militants.
Elsewhere, Olmert admitted "mistakes" during Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon's Hezbollah Shiite militant movement. "There have been mistakes. But a responsible leadership knows how to take into account criticism in order to learn from them."
Olmert was quoted as saying in late December that he had no intention of resigning over the Winograd final report. In its interim findings released at the end of April last year, the commission accused Olmert of "serious failure."
