PARIS, (AP) – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Israel and the Palestinians have “never been as close” to a peace deal as today.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says both sides are “serious and want to achieve peace.”

The leaders were speaking together Sunday in Paris, where they were having joint talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Repeated rounds of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks since a peace conference in Annapolis, Md., last year have produced little movement.