Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were locked in frantic last-minute talks last night as they struggled to reach a joint declaration on the eve of today’s US-hosted Middle East peace conference.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, joined the delegates to hammer out a joint statement of principles, which both sides had failed to agree despite months of negotiations ahead of the three-day summit.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, arrived in Washington acknowledging that the two sides had been struggling to reach agreement on even a basic framework — a sign of the huge obstacles faced by President Bush to revive the stalled peace process. Last night Syria confirmed that it would send its Deputy Foreign Minister to the event after receiving assurances from the White House that the issue of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights had been added to the agenda.

Nearly 50 countries will attend the conference, including a record 17 Arab nations. After weeks of apparent reluctance, Saudi Arabia agreed on Friday to attend, giving a much needed boost to the summit’s credibility. The White House hopes that Syria’s attendance will begin a process to prise Damascus away from its embrace of Iran, which was not invited to the summit.

The conference is the first big push for a peace settlement since the collapse of negotiations at Camp David in 2000. Both sides were playing down expectations last night, privately conceding that the chances of reaching a fundamental deal before Mr Bush leaves office in 14 months’ time are slim.

The summit, which opens in Washington today and moves to the US naval base in Annapolis, Maryland, tomorrow, is nearly the 40th time since the 1967 Six Day War that the US has launched a diplomatic initiative to end the decades-old conflict.

The idea of a Middle East conference was announced by Mr Bush in July. The White House hoped that, after the takeover of the Gaza Strip by the militant Islamic group Hamas, a new opportunity existed for Israel to negotiate a two-state solution with Mr Abbas’s moderate Government in the West Bank.

The troubled negotiations on the pre-summit declaration, however, reflect how far the two sides are from reaching a comprehensive deal. The most that will come out of Annapolis, the parties say, is an agreement to resume negotiations, and a pledge to return to phase one of the 2003 “road map”, which ended in failure shortly after it was rolled out by Mr Bush.

Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, said she expected the two sides to agree on a document “to launch the [peace] process, not solve [the conflict].” Negotiations on the pre-summit declaration have been deadlocked over whether the document should address the core issues that must be dealt with if any peace deal is to be reached, including final borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state and whether Palestinian refugees can return to Israel.

The Palestinians have wanted the document to address the core issues in general terms. Israel has pushed for much vaguer language, with no timetable for future negotiations. Israel has also balked at Palestinian demands for a US monitor in the region.

Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas arrive in the US genuinely committed to a settlement. But both are severely limited in their ability to deliver a deal by problems at home.

Mr Abbas rules only parts of the West Bank, having lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas. One of the principal tasks of Tony Blair, in his new role as the Middle East envoy for the Quartet of America, Russia, the EU and the UN, has been to shore up support for Mr Abbas at home, but the Palestinian leader remains a weak figure domestically.

Mr Olmert is unpopular in Israel and his political rivals want to see him fail so that they can succeed him as Prime Minister.

One of the greatest dangers for the Middle East, analysts say, is that any perceived failure of the Annapolis conference will strengthen extremists in the region. Shibley Telhami, a Middle East scholar in the US, said: “People know that if this initiative is aimed to bolster the Arab moderates, and they fail after raising expectations so high, then Hamas wins without lifting a finger.” Hamas has not been invited and yesterday declared the summit stillborn.

Patrick Clawson, a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said: “You want to create hopes without creating expectations that cannot be fulfilled. And that’s tough.”

Hopes and reality

Hopes for the summit

To lay foundations of a Palestinian state and peace in the Middle East

The reality

It will be only an agreement by Israel and Palestinian to begin negotiations again

Hopes of President Bush

To have a Middle East peace deal by the time he left office

The reality

The most he can hope for is to leave office with Israel and the Palestinians still talking and not fighting

Hopes of President Abbas

That the talks will isolate Hamas at home and strengthen his standing as Palestinian President

The reality

Few Palestinians believe that he has the strength or credibility to deliver them their own state

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