Abbas demands 2-state map from Netanyahu

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has demanded that Israel's prime minister present a map for a future Palestinian state before any peace talks can resume, an aide said on Friday. Abbas "wants to know, through a map to be presented by Benjamin Netanyahu to (US Secretary of State John) Kerry, what the prime minister's view of a two-state solution would be, especially the borders," political adviser Nimr Hammad told AFP. The remarks came just days ahead of a visit by Kerry, who will hold fortnightly meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, local media say, as he tries to revive the stalled peace process. "Any return to negotiations requires Netanyahu to agree on 1967 borders," Hammad said. Abbas has insisted that participation be conditioned on using the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War as the basis for negotiating future borders. Abbas also repeated to Barack Obama ,on his first visit to the region as US president in March, that a halt to Israeli settlement building in the Palestinian territories was a precondition for any peace talks.