Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his Jerusalem residence on Sunday to discuss the state of peace talks as Olmert's exit draws closer.

Sunday's parley was the latest in a series of meetings between Olmert and Abbas, meant to advance the negotiations they began at a US-sponsored peace conference late in 2007. Their last meeting was three weeks ago.

Olmert, facing numerous corruption probes, has said that he will step down after his Kadima party elects a new leader in September, and the meeting on Sunday could be one of the last between the two leaders who launched this round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Olmert would like Palestinian peace negotiators to sign a document outlining any agreements reached with Israel before he leaves office, aides to the Israeli leader said on Sunday.

The prime minister's impending resignation could throw the already faltering peace negotiations further into uncertainty.

At the beginning of the meeting Olmert stressed the importance of achieving the goal that was set at the 2007 Annapolis conference.

"One thing I want to promise you is we are absolutely committed to carry on the Annapolis process," said Olmert as he and Abbas entered his official residence. "We have to complete the Annapolis process this year," he added.

He called the Palestinian leader "a man of peace".

The heads of the two negotiation teams, foreign minister Tzipi Livni on the Israeli side and Ahmed Qureia for the Palestinians, also participated in the meeting.

With little progress visible on the ground and with Hamas still firmly in control of the Gaza Strip, the agreed-upon deadline for a final peace deal - January 2009, when US President George W Bush leaves office - is now regarded as all but out of reach.

Olmert would like to have the sides sign a document outlining agreement on some of the key issues before he leaves office, a so-called "shelf agreement" that would not be immediately implemented, officials from Olmert's office said on Sunday.

A vague agreement of this kind would show what progress has been made and indicate where the negotiations would be picked up by the next Israeli leader.

Palestinians, while acknowledging some progress in delineating the final borders of their future state, rejected the notion of a partial accord, saying they wouldn't settle for anything less than a full-fledged deal.

Peace negotiators on both sides privately report progress in their efforts to outline future borders of Israel and a Palestinian state.

But no agreements have been announced or signed, and the talks have not been accompanied by serious goodwill gestures that could help them succeed.

Progress in the talks has been patchy at best, with the sides stymied by the same issues that have foiled previous attempts to reach a deal. From Gaza, Hamas condemned Abbas for meeting the Israeli leader.

"We are sure that all of these meetings, related to the negotiations with the occupation, are failure meetings and we consider the meetings with Olmert as meetings for nothing," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said during a news conference in Gaza City.

"It is just used as a cover for the occupation to continue its crimes and aggression against the Palestinian people, and the real beneficiary from these meetings is the Israeli occupation."

Meanwhile, Olmert spokesman Mark Regev told journalists outside the prime minister's residence: "It is clear in this process that, while a lot of work has been done and there have been successes, that serious work remains to be done."

"The prime minister of Israel, the government of Israel is committed to continuing the effort to narrow gaps and to reach a historic joint Israeli-Palestinian document," he added.

"Up until now we have not had negotiations on the issue of Jerusalem and the Israeli proposal is that we find a joint Israeli-Palestinian mechanism to continue to deal with the issue of Jerusalem," Regev said.

The two sides remain far apart on the issue of Jerusalem. Olmert has hinted he would be willing to cede some Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

But that falls far short of the Palestinian demand for all of east Jerusalem, including the Old City. Palestinian officials linked to the talks were not immediately available for comment.