Israel's foreign minister said on Friday it was "about time" the Jewish state talked to the Palestinians, adding no conditions should be put on meeting President Mahmoud Abbas. But Tzipi Livni said Abbas should expect nothing from talks, such as a release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, unless militants in the Gaza Strip freed a soldier captured in a cross-border raid on June 25. Her comments were a softening of remarks by Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who said this week a summit between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, would take place only if the soldier was released first. "In relation to a meeting with Abu Mazen, I do not think there need to be any conditions for such a meeting," Livni, told a news conference in Tel Aviv with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "It is about time we found a way to talk with the Palestinians and with Abu Mazen in order to find out whether there is a way to promote a process that can lead in the future to a two-state solution."