JERUSALEM, 27 October 2007 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged yesterday to work toward a rapid and meaningful agreement for a US conference in the wake of major disagreements.

The two leaders met for two and a half hours with their chief negotiators responsible for crafting a joint document for the conference — tentatively expected next month — in a bid to end the stalemate.

Despite outward signs of progress, yesterday’s talks were overshadowed by the deadliest day of Israeli-Palestinian violence in a month with six Palestinian fighters killed and two Israeli soldiers lightly wounded in the Gaza Strip.

“They agreed to try to reach, as soon as possible, a meaningful statement,” Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said after the lunchtime talks — the second Abbas-Olmert meeting this month — ended in Jerusalem.

Eisin said that during the talks both sides emphasized that a commitment to implementing a stalled, internationally drafted peace blueprint would be part of the statement for the conference.

No date has yet been announced for the US meeting, which could serve as a launch pad for reviving full-blown peace talks after a seven-year hiatus.

The internationally drafted peace road map has made next to no progress since it was adopted in June 2003, and has already missed its first deadline for creating an independent Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.

Abbas and Olmert “agreed to immediately and mutually implement commitments laid out for each side in the first phase of the road map,” senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told a news conference in the West Bank. Israel wants the Palestinians to carry out immediately the first phase of the road map, which calls for an end to violence and on Israel to freeze Jewish settlement activity and dismantle outposts built since March 2001.

The content of the document, which is supposed to outline a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been a source of serious disagreement although Eisin described the atmosphere at yesterday’s talks as “very good.” Erekat said Abbas and Olmert agreed their teams would conduct “ongoing and intense” discussions to reach the joint document. Israel said the negotiating teams would meet again next Wednesday.

Abbas raised strong objections to Israel’s approval on Thursday of power cuts being imposed on the Gaza Strip because of Palestinian rocket fire.

Even as the talks were held, Israeli troops killed six Palestinians in some of the heaviest fighting for weeks in the Gaza Strip.

Two Israeli soldiers were wounded, the army said, as three separate raids were mounted into the territory, backed by airstrikes. Seven Palestinian fighters and three civilians were wounded, hospital staff said.

Fighters from Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, were joined by other fighters in battles that began Thursday night.

The Israeli Army, which described the raids as “routine,” said its forces pulled back in early afternoon and witnesses said fighting appeared to have ended.

Explosions and gunfire could be heard throughout Gaza and plumes of smoke billowed from the battle zones, in the north, south and center of the 45-km coastal strip.

Hamas said three of its men were killed while Islamic Jihad said three of their number also died in the clashes.