国际英语新闻：Abbas: talks only choice for Palestinians

RAMALLAH, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday evening that the Palestinians don't have any choice other than negotiations.

When attending the ceremony of the Armenian Christmas in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Abbas said the Palestinians "are not going to stop working for peace," the Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported.

The Western-backed Palestinian president called on the Israelis "to adopt peace in order to enable the two peoples, the Israelis and the Palestinians, to live in harmony side by side in their two independent states."

"We hope that the year 2010 will be a year of peace and the year of establishment of the independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital," Abbas added.

Abbas said on Friday in a speech addressing his Fatah party's revolutionary council that he rejected ending the long-standing conflict with Israel by weapons.

However, Abbas called on the Palestinians for peaceful resistance against the expansion of Jewish settlements and the Israeli construction of the separation wall in the West Bank.

Since 2002, Israel has been building a cement wall along the borderline with the West Bank, saying the wall is aimed to prevent Palestinian militants from waging attacks on Israel.