Israel sets deadline for Hamas

Occupied Jerusalem: Israel will give the Palestinians until the end of the year to prove they are willing to negotiate a final peace deal, and will unilaterally set final borders with them by 2008 if they do not, a close associate of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said.

Justice Minister Haim Ramon was the first Israeli official to set a deadline for the Palestinians' militant Hamas government to renounce violence and recognise the Jewish state.

The Palestinians' moderate president, Mahmoud Abbas, of the rival Fatah party, has tried to persuade Israel to bypass Hamas and talk peace with him, but Olmert has said he would not negotiate with Abbas if Hamas did not change its violent ways.