Israel sets diplomacy with Palestinians

"We discussed in great depth and detail several political and security issues, mainly preparations for a summit between the Palestinian and Israeli leadership," Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat told AFP.

"We agreed to hold another meeting next week to make further preparations for the summit," he said after the talks in Jerusalem with Dov Weisglass, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Hassan Abu Libdeh, bureau chief of Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei, and former Palestinian security minister Mohammed Dahlan also attended the two-hour meeting, as well as Sharon's political advisor Shalom Tourjeman.

Contacts were renewed at the request of Sharon after "positive developments in the Palestinian Authority and efforts to prevent terror", a statement from Sharon's office said.

It stressed that any progress would be "dependent on comprehensive Palestinian activity against terror, violence and incitement".

Although the statement did not detail what was discussed, it said a second meeting would take place next week to continue security contacts ahead of the planned Sharon-Abbas meeting.

Sharon froze all contacts with the Palestinian Authority on January 14 after a suicide bombing in Gaza that killed six Israelis, casting a shadow over Abbas's inauguration the following day.

Security contacts were resumed last week, leading to an agreement for the deployment of some 2,500 Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip with orders to prevent attacks by Palestinian militant groups on Israeli targets.

A Sharon-Abbas meeting would be the first top-level talks between Israel and the Palestinians in four years.

Earlier Israeli Prime Minister Sharon approved a start to diplomatic talks with the Palestinians in response to a lull in militant attacks secured by their new leader Mahmoud Abbas, officials said yesterday. The decision came hours before senior US diplomat William Burns was to arrive on a fresh White House mission to revive a "road map" peace plan envisaging a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip co-existing with a secure Israel.

Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said the new diplomatic contacts aimed initially to coordinate with Palestinians a planned Israeli pullout from occupied Gaza this year. Sharon has cast the plan as "disengagement" from four years of conflict.