(Xinhua) -- The Palestinians aim to create an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital through the resumed peace talks with the Israelis, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday. Abbas, who arrived here Thursday after attending the U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference, told a rally that the newly resumed negotiations will be a very complicated and arduous process. The peace conference, held in Annapolis, Maryland, was aimed at relaunching negotiations over a "two-state solution" that could lead to an independent Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem. Abbas expressed the hope that the two sides will conclude all final-status negotiations on the issues of Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders, water resources and security, and reach a solution that can be put into practice at once by the end of 2008.
He noted that the Annapolis peace conference announced the resumption of the stalled peace talks and laid out the groundwork for the upcoming negotiations, namely "land for peace" principle, the roadmap peace plan and the Arab Peace Initiative. The international community needs to make unremitting efforts to put the goals set at the conference into reality, he said.