DAVOS, Switzerland - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suggested Friday there was a limit to how long he would keep up efforts to form a unity government with hard-line Hamas militants, raising the possibility he would move within weeks to call early elections if he fails.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said after meeting Abbas on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum that they had tried to explore "any way to push the process." But she implied the road to peace would be long, with their meeting just one among many.
Jordan's King Abdullah II told the forum that the need for progress was urgent because the Palestinian-Israeli standoff was at a "critical juncture."
"We cannot afford to miss this opportunity," Abdullah said, adding that the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation had vast potential to destabilize the region.
"I believe that time is running out" to solve the crisis, he said.
He said he hoped momentum would grow to restart talks after a February meeting of the Quartet _ the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations _ in Washington.
"The next big thing is the trilateral talks," Livni said, referring to the planned meeting next month between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Abbas and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Abbas said he thought that meeting could move things forward. "I think the Americans are really serious this time," he said.
The Palestinian president also said he would give two or three weeks more to pursue unity talks with Hamas and would expect to move toward calling early Palestinian elections.
Abbas's chief aide, Saeb Erekat, said that should not be interpreted as a hard deadline or as an attempt to press the negotiations with Hamas, which have been held up over the militant group's refusal to disavow its call for the destruction of Israel.
Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections a year ago, taking control of the government. Abbas, who is more moderate, was elected separately earlier.
Abbas travels next to Spain, where he was expected to meet with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Last year, Spain joined France and Italy in proposing a Middle East peace initiative that has earned a lukewarm reception from Israel and the Palestinians.
Livni and Abbas met in the same hotel where in 1994, then-Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat held round-the-clock peace talks.
Elsewhere at the forum, Mexico's president said building a fence on the border with the United States was "offensive" to the relationship between the two countries, and he hoped to convince the U.S. that Mexican labor had been good for the American economy.
"My goal is to win the debate about immigration within America," Felipe Calderon said. "I want to make American public opinion understand the value that Mexican labor has had in the growth of their economy."
The Mexican leader said there was no way to completely stop immigration between the two countries without solving the fundamental realities that drive Mexicans to seek better economic opportunities available in their wealthier northern neighbor.
"The American economy is rich in capital, the Mexican is rich in labor," Calderon said, adding that the problem will ease as Mexico grows. "Instead of labor crossing into the United States, we can have investment crossing into Mexico ... so that our families and our communities are no longer divided."
Also Friday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made an impassioned plea to rich countries to make tough compromises in long-struggling global free trade talks, or risk continued terrorism, organized crime and other ills.
Silva said it was up to the United States and Europe to tear down the barriers to farm trade that poor countries claim are preventing them from developing their economies.
"If we wish to send a signal to the poorest countries on the planet that they will have an opportunity in the 21st century, it is necessary that the United States, Britain, France and Germany, that these countries should assume responsibility," he said. "If we want to avoid terrorism in the world and growth in organized crime I believe that the Doha round is one of the paths that we should follow."
His address came one day before top trade negotiators from Brazil, the U.S., the 27-nation European Union and two dozen other countries are scheduled to meet in an attempt to find a way forward in the talks.
