Following are excerpts from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting today:

"I, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will brief you this morning on last week's meeting in Annapolis.  There is no doubt that this was a positive meeting that will enable the negotiations process between us and the Palestinians to move forward.  As was communicated in the joint statement, that has been placed before the Government and which was agreed on by us and the Palestinian Authority and recognized by the US President, an effort will be made to hold accelerated negotiations in the hope that it will be possible to conclude them in 2008; however, there is no commitment to a specific timetable regarding these negotiations.  The assumption is that the two sides will enter negotiations with the intention of making every effort to move them forward.  The most important thing in the joint statement – and this is what Foreign Minister Livni, who led our team, insisted upon, and we, of course, agreed to it – is that any future arrangement and agreement will be operationally subject to fulfilling all of the Roadmap commitments, including all of its stages and outlines.  In other words, Israel will not have to carry out any commitment stemming from the agreement before all of the Roadmap commitments are met.  I think that this is very important and assures the security component, which is – in our view, and in any eventuality and under any condition – the most important issue that we are dealing with.  The very fact of the meeting, that so many Arab countries attended, even those that have no diplomatic relations with Israel and which have never recognized us, this framework that was completely linked to a possible peace settlement between us and the Palestinians, was – in our view – important, created the proper atmosphere and will provide the momentum that we believe must be applied in order begin substantive negotiations.  By the way, one of the main issues on the meeting's agenda was the need for Arab countries to normalize relations with the State of Israel, the importance of which was recognized not as a future matter but which must begin right now."

Prime Minister Olmert called for an end to the continuing strike by secondary school teachers, noted that the Cabinet would discuss Israel's efforts against slavery and trafficking in women and paid tribute to his retiring Foreign Press and Public Affairs Adviser, Miri Eisin.