Mideast mediators have held meeting in a bid to preserve U.S.-backed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks despite their looming failure to produce a deal by year's end. At the beginning of Sunday's meeting of the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stood up and shook hands.
Later, the two reported to the Quartet on their slow-moving efforts.
The Quartet includes the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia. Sunday's meeting was also attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, his counterpart Bernard Kouchner of France, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
The gathering in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh comes a year after the peace process was relaunched at a US-sponsored conference.
