Bush assures Mahmoud Abbas on statehood, Hamas offers truce

WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters):

U.S. President George W. Bush assured Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas Thursday that Palestinian statehood remained a high priority in his final 10 months in office despite faltering peace talks. As Bush met with Abbas at the White House to try to shore up the negotiations, Hamas formally proposed to Egyptian mediators in Cairo a six-month truce between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with an option to extend it to include the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “The movement agrees to a truce in the Gaza Strip … fixed at six months, during which period Egypt will work to extend the truce to the West Bank,” former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, said reading from a statement. “The truce must be mutual and simultaneous and the blockade must be lifted and the crossing points opened, including the Rafah crossing point (between Gaza and Egypt),” Zahar added.