MIDDLE EAST: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he is prepared to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the coming days

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday (December 20) he was prepared to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the coming days. "I hear now that Abu Mazen says that he will be happy to hold a meeting with me now. If it is possible to give him happiness and to me, then I almost see no reason that we should not do this and I hope this will happen very soon," said Olmert in a joint news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in Jerusalem. Palestinian sources confirmed they expected Abbas would hold a long-awaited meeting with Olmert in the coming days. While such a meeting would be seen as a possible spur to reviving peace talks between Israel and the moderate Abbas, Olmert has said the Palestinians could expect little until a soldier held captive in Gaza since June was freed. "We want to see that there is a serious declaration by Israel that they want to stop their military operation, they want to put an end to occupation but if the Israelis still talking about Palestinian state without borders and they are against giving the right of return of the refugees and they are against Jerusalem as the capital, I think this will close any opportunity to give success or give support between Abbas and Olmert," said Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad in Gaza city. The meeting would be the first formal talks between the two leaders since Olmert took over as prime minister in January. Israel refuses to deal with the Hamas Islamist movement, which formally seeks the Jewish state's destruction. Ten Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Abbas called on Saturday (December 16) for early elections to break a political deadlock with the Hamas government and get Western sanctions lifted. "I hope a sense of responsibility will cause a stop to the mutual violence (between Fatah and Hamas)," said Olmert. Hamas, which trounced Abbas's once dominant Fatah in parliamentary elections last January, has said it would boycott any new polls. No date has been announced. Despite throwing down the gauntlet to Hamas, Abbas has left the door open for the formation of a Fatah-Hamas coalition with a "technocrat" cabinet that could satisfy the West. Hamas and Fatah tried for months to form a unity government to end a power struggle, but talks foundered. The Islamists have struggled to govern since taking office in March under the weight of sanctions imposed over its refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

ITN Source | December 21, 2006

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