US:Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has told Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas that Israel will not allow the return of any Palestinian refugees as part of a future statehood deal, Mr Olmert's office said yesterday.
The official statement was issued in response to reports Mr Olmert proposed absorbing 2,000 refugees per year for 10 years as part of an agreement to establish a Palestinian state in most of the occupied West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip. "The prime minister never offered to absorb 20,000 refugees in Israel. The prime minister again reiterates that under any future agreement, there will not be any return of Palestinian refugees to Israel in any number," Mr Olmert's office said.
US-sponsored peace talks between Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas, launched last November, have shown little sign of progress.
Dogged by a corruption scandal, Mr Olmert announced on July 30th he would resign as prime minister in September, dealing what many see as a death-blow to any statehood deal this year.
The 20,000 figure was reported in yesterday's edition of Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper.
Some 700,000 people, half the Arab population of Palestine in May 1948, fled or were driven from their homes when Israel was created. Letting them and their families live in Israel now would undermine its nature as a Jewish state, Israel argues.
The largest Palestinian refugee communities are in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip.- ( Reuters)