Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet today in Jerusalem, ostensibly to outline an agenda for the planned November international summit in Washington. While Abbas has agreed to meet with Olmert, he has expressed concerns that the upcoming summit would be a “waste of time” if Israel only offers a “declaration of principles,” maintaining that real progress must be made in order for the summit to have any success.

According to media sources, Olmert is pushing for a non-committal position limited to a “declaration of intent” while Abbas wants a detailed plan on Israel’s position on primary issues between the two sides.

The two meeting between the two leaders is meant to smooth out a number of issues before the scheduled arrival of US Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice in mid-September. This seems highly unlikely however, given that Israel has yet to implement promises it made to the Palestinians two months ago as part of their “good will gestures”, such as the removal of a number of checkpoints throughout the West Bank and other means of easing restrictions on the people.

Palestinian officials therefore, have expressed their frustration with Israel’s intransigence at the political level. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the main point of the upcoming meeting for the Palestinians would be “ways to end the Israeli occupation” and not the drafting of any declaration of principles.

Presidential advisor Nimer Hammad also said they would not travel to Washington in November if a general agenda is not formulated over the major issues. Hammad also insisted that today’s meeting – the fifth in five months – would include a discussion of daily life issues for the Palestinians, adding that he hoped the Israelis would realize that their recent military escalation in the Gaza Strip would not serve peace efforts in any way.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday , reportedly to strengthen civil and economic ties between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, agreeing to establish economics, social affairs and environment committees.

As for today’s meeting, Israeli sources hint that the Palestinians should not expect too much too soon. David Baker, an official in Olmert’s office said in the Israeli daily Haaretz that the meeting would “center on the development of Palestinian governing institutions, bolstering Abbas' government and issues concerning Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side."

However, a senior Israeli government official clarified that Olmert was not planning to offer Abbas any good will gestures regarding easing Israeli restrictions on the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

For the Palestinians, without even a promise for this, today’s meeting is certainly not expected to be a breakthrough.