Middle East peace talks 'promising'
Israeli and Palestinian teams have failed to make a breakthrough in their tangled peace talks but say negotiations look "promising".
Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath has reported "fruitful and very serious" talks.
He said the sides were close on the issues of security and borders of the future Palestinian state.
"This is real negotiations, not posturing," he said.
On the Israeli side, negotiator Yossi Sarid was also pleased with the talks.
"The talks went quite all right. "There was nothing dramatic, but it's a gradual promising process," he said.
The Taba talks are likely to end early next week and are unlikely to produce a full agreement, negotiators on both sides said.
The sides are racing against time, trying to achieve at least an outline of a peace deal before Israel's February 6 election.
Any progress, however, could be nullified if Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is defeated in the election by his hard-line opponent, Ariel Sharon.
Mr Sharon, who maintains a two-figure lead over Mr Barak, has rejected Mr Barak's compromise offers to the Palestinians and said he would not honour any agreement Mr Barak reached before the election.
