JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who could step down later this week, warned on Monday against delaying a peace deal with the Palestinians. "Every day that goes by without our reaching a deal with the Palestinians is a day we may regret in the future," an aide quoted the once-hawkish Olmert as telling parliament's powerful foreign affairs and defence committee. Olmert's briefing was likely to be his last as he plans to step down after his Kadima party elects a successor on Wednesday. On Sunday, Olmert said Israel must give up parts of the West Bank. "The idea of a 'Greater Israel' is over. There is no such thing. Whoever says so is just misleading himself," Olmert said. "I used to think that the land between the Jordan River and the sea was all ours. But ultimately, after a long and torturous process, I reached the conclusion that we must share it with those who live here with us." Olmert is to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for a new round of US-backed talks in Jerusalem on Tuesday, a senior Israeli official said. The two leaders have held regular talks, usually meeting twice a month, since the peace process was relaunched at a US-hosted conference in November. But Olmert's decision to step down has cast doubts over the future of the already slow-moving peace process. Olmert announced his decision on July 30, as allies and rivals alike clamoured for his resignation over a string of corruption and influence-peddling scandals. Meanwhile, a UN report said Monday that Israel's shelling of the Gaza village of Beit Hanoun in November 2006 that killed 19 Palestinian civilians may constitute a war crime and the victims should receive compensation. "In the absence of a well-founded explanation from the Israeli military the mission must conclude that there is a possibility that the shelling of Beit Hanoun constituted a war crime," said the report of a fact-finding mission headed by South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu. The former South African archbishop and anti-apartheid activist will present his report, which also condemns Palestinian attacks on Israel, to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday. He was mandated by the Council in November 2006 to investigate the incident but only managed to visit Gaza via Egypt in May this year after the Israelis refused three previous attempts to access the coastal strip via their territory. Following an internal investigation, Israel concluded that shelling the civilians' homes was "a rare and grave technical error of the artillery radar system," and announced in February that no charges would be brought against Israeli forces involved in the incident. But Tutu's report said that the "Israeli response of a largely secret internal military investigation is absolutely unacceptable from both legal and moral points of view." "The mission recommends that the State of Israel pay victims adequate compensation without delay," it added. Tutu also condemned rocket fire by Palestinian fighters based in Gaza against Israeli civilians and said the Hamas movement in power in the coastal strip was responsible for ensuring it ceased. "Those in positions of authority in Gaza have not only an international humanitarian law obligation to respect international humanitarian law norms relating to the protection of civilians, but also a responsibility to ensure that these norms are respected by others," the report said.