The Israeli Prime Minister and the Palestinian President agreed at an informal meeting in Jordan today to hold a summit in the next few weeks.

The breakfast hosted by Jordan’s King Abdullah in the ancient town of Petra was the first time Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas had met since the Israeli leader took office last month. The two men shook hands, embraced and kissed each other on the cheek, in a greeting Mr Abbas described as very warm.

"We decided we will meet in a matter of a few weeks," Mr Olmert said during a panel meeting. The two leaders plan to explore a possible resumption of peacemaking, which has stalled.

Aides said that the first summit meeting between the two men could take place within a fortnight, although Mr Olmert cautioned that serious negotiations were unlikely until the Hamas-led Palestinian government recognised Israel.

"I think that Abu Mazen is a genuine person and he comes here with good intentions," Mr Olmert said, using the name that Mahmoud Abbas is commonly known by. "But to the best of my knowledge, he is not the Prime Minister of the Palestinian authority... The political power is not with him but with a terrorist organisation no-one is prepared to negotiate with."

Mr Olmert has vowed to press ahead with a plan to reshape Israel’s settlement map in the occupied West Bank unilaterally if he concludes that the Jewish state has no peace partner.

Mr Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has called on Olmert to restart peace talks.

Mr Olmert said he was ready to give up some occupied land to make way for a Palestinian state, but would not accept withdrawal to Israel’s pre-1967 borders as demanded by the Palestinians.

"I am ready to go all along the way to make compromises and pull out of territory, something you would not expect an Israeli Prime Minister to say in an Arab country openly and publicly," Mr Olmert said.

"I have no commitment to return back to the boundaries that are defined by Abu Mazen or other Palestinians. We will argue about it.

"There will be blocks of settlements that will remain, that cannot be evacuated, but there will be many, many parts of the territory ... evacuated by Israel, and contiguous territory where the Palestinians will be able to realise their lifelong dream of building their independent state."

Jordanian and Israeli officials said the two men had shaken hands at the start of the breakfast. It took place ahead of the conference of Nobel laureates, businessmen and politicians from around the world who were due to discuss Israeli-Palestinian peace, other Middle East issues and global security. Among those present were the Dalai Lama and Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor who won the Peace Prize in 1986.

King Abdullah urged the two leaders during the meeting to build confidence as a prelude to resuming talks on the basis of the internationally backed peace plan known as the "road map".

Speaking to Mr Wiesel after the meeting, Mr Olmert said: "I am ready to put on (the) line everything for one purpose, to achieve peace, to make compromise, to pull out of certain territories. We must make painful compromise in order to reach common ground with the Palestinians."

He added: "I pray the Palestinians will have the courage to get rid of extremists and fundamentalists and put in place the right people to move on recognition."

The handshake came against the backdrop of a spiral of violence in the Palestinian territories, where two Israeli air strikes in two days - carried out in response to Palestinian militant rocket attacks on southern Israel - have killed five Palestinian civilians but failed to hit the militants they targeted.

Palestinian officials have said that the strikes threaten efforts to relaunch the peace process.

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge