United Nations, November 28, SPA -- It is time to “abandon piecemeal approaches” to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict and begin final-status negotiations that deal with all the issues in dispute, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an international conference, which began its deliberations yesterday in Annapolis, Maryland. Ban said final-status talks must “begin in earnest” and deal with such issues as borders, security, refugees, Jerusalem, West Bank settlements, and water. “The broad outlines of solutions to these issues are clear,” he said. “There is no reason they cannot be resolved in 2008.”--MORE www.spa.gov.sa/503983