CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Despite Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent announcement that he'll resign following his party's primaries in September, he met with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday to continue discussions on a peace deal.

Their last meeting took place in Paris in mid-July, where Olmert announced that he intended to release more Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to Abbas, a topic the PA president reportedly plans to pursue at today's meeting.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to visit the region again in two weeks to continue pushing the Bush administration's plan to reach an agreement before year's end.

Rice wants a document reflecting the status of the talks, preferably before the United Nations General Assembly meets in September.

According to Olmert, the two sides have achieved "significant progress" on many issues, outside of the division of Jerusalem.

Source: The Jerusalem Post