Abbas asks militants to halt attacks

Abbas, Palestine Liberation Organisation chief and a former prime minister who is also seen as a likely presidential candidate in the Jan. 9 election, met leaders from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Participants said Abbas raised the question of halting attacks before the election but did not request a truce outright. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are behind suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis in the four-year-old uprising.

"There was a general talk about the need for calm in the coming few months to enable the elections and the Israeli withdrawal," a senior Palestinian official said.

Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar told reporters before the meeting that a truce could not be considered until Israel stopped raids and assassinations in Palestinian areas.

"There are great challenges that require fundamental changes in the Palestinian reality," said Ismail Haniyah, another Hamas official. A truce "is not an issue for discussion in Hamas right now."

Hamas wants parliamentary elections and a national unity leadership. The last elections were held in 1996.

Arafat's death last week kindled hopes of a revival in Middle East peacemaking, but also fears of violence between Palestinian factions vying for power. Abbas escaped injury on Sunday in a Gaza gunfight started by angry militants.

Israel has said it will consider renewing peace moves if a new Palestinian leadership curbs attacks. That might start with coordination on Israel's plan to quit the occupied Gaza Strip next year.

"If in time we see that there is a Palestinian leadership that is willing to fight terror, we can have security coordination and ... perhaps coordination on handing over the territory from which we withdraw," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Tuesday.