Palestinian and Israeli negotiators worked through the night to narrow differences ahead of a Middle East peace conference on Tuesday which President George W. Bush warned would need "difficult compromises". Before Bush was to open the conference in Annapolis, Maryland, Israeli and Palestinian officials made an 11th-hour push to craft a joint statement to serve as a basis for peace negotiations that could start after the conference. Ministers and top officials from about 50 countries and organisations, including Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia and Syria, which do not recognise Israel, are at the conference, Bush`s biggest attempt yet to bring the Middle East rivals together. The US president met with leaders from both sides at the White House on Monday and later urged all parties to make the "difficult compromises" needed to create a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel. Bush said he was "optimistic" about restarting peace talks after a seven-year freeze and reaffirmed what critics have called his wobbly personal stake in the effort. "Tonight, I restate my personal commitment on behalf of the United States for all those in the Middle East who wish to live in freedom and peace. We stand with you at the Annapolis conference and beyond," he said. "Achieving this goal requires difficult compromises and the Israelis and Palestinians have elected leaders committed to making them," said Bush, leaves office in January, 2009. Bush heard broadly optimistic forecasts in separate White House talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. "This time it`s different" because of the wider array of participants, Olmert said of the conference. Abbas was also upbeat as he met Bush, even though the Islamist movement Hamas, which romped to victory in January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary polls, said Palestinians would not be bound by any decisions taken in Annapolis. "We have a great deal of hope that this conference will produce permanent status negotiations, expanded negotiations, over all permanent status issues that would lead to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian people," Abbas said. The so-called "final status" issues that are areas of major disagreement between Israelis and Palestinians include the borders of a future Palestinian state, the future of Jerusalem, and fate of Palestinian refugees. But Olmert vowed there could be no deal unless the Palestinians halted attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-controlled smaller half of the Palestinians` promised future state. "If we are talking about a Palestinian state that includes both the West Bank and Gaza, we cannot take Gaza out of the context of the fight against terror," Olmert said. Israel has insisted Abbas must crack down on militants before any implementation of an agreement, which the sides have said they wished to reach by the end of 2008. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were still meeting early Tuesday in a bid to reach an accord on the framework document before the conference, officials said. A diplomatic source said the two sides remained at odds over Israel`s demand that it be recognized as "the state of the Jewish people." The joint document has become bogged down over many details, including what the text should be called. The Olmert government says recognition of Israel as the home of the Jewish people was necessary to avert the return of millions of Palestinian refugees, a move that would eventually reduce the Jewish population to a minority. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack downplayed the problems. "The fact of their presence there speaks more loudly than any particular declaration or document could," McCormack told reporters on Monday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was Tuesday quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying Russia was ready to organise a follow-up meeting to the talks at Annapolis. "If the parties, I mean to say Israel, Palestine and the Arab League are in favour that Moscow should become the site to follow up the work (at Annapolis), we would be happy to welcome the delegations," the minister said, speaking in Washington. A diplomatic source said Washington has suggested that the Annapolis conference should lead to the creation of a committee which will oversee future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. "The arrangement proposed by the Americans to the Arab countries also includes the holding of a similar conference in Moscow in January which will include the role of Syria and Lebanon in the peace process," an Arab diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.