Abbas to attend Middle East mediators' meeting

Ramallah: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will attend a November 9 meeting of Middle East mediators in Egypt where negotiators will brief them on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, an aide said on Sunday.

A senior Abbas aide, Nimmer Hammad, said he will meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before the meeting of the so-called Quartet, which includes the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

Rice is to attend the meeting three days after her return to the Middle East for further talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on a peace deal Washington had hoped to achieve this year.

Palestinians are looking for more than just a general statement from the meeting, Hammad said.

"We want the Quartet to specify that the Palestinian state would be set up on 1967-occupied lands with East Jerusalem as its capital," he said.

"This should be presented to the new U.S. administration to pursue the peace process from there. Any amendments to the 1967 borders should be agreed and should be very minor," he said.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, will not attend, and Israeli official said, but will instead be represented by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.