Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet on Monday to talk on resuming political negotiations, a top Palestinian official said on Sunday.
The only point on the summit agenda was "the political negotiations," while the security, financial and foreign relations left to be handled by joint ministerial committees, Abbas' confident and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters in Ramallah.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) hoped and requested the meeting to be held in West Bank city of Jericho, said Erekat.
It will be the first time for a summit between Israeli and Palestinian leaders to be held on the Palestinian-controlled territory, he said. All previous meetings took place abroad or in the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem.
"Preparations are underway ... we asked that the conference takes place in Jericho but the time and place would be finally confirmed in the coming hours," said Erekat.
However, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip since mid-June, blasted the meetings between Abbas and Olmert as serving "the Israeli occupation at the end."
"The occupation made it clear that it is not ready to go in final talks and will continue killings and aggression," said Hamas spokesman in Gaza Sami Abu Zuhri.
Abu Zuhri also slammed Abbas for refusing to "sit with his people," referring to Abbas' refusal to talk with Hamas unless it makes an apology for capturing the Palestinian Authority compounds in Gaza.
"This is very shameful; he (Abbas) should meet his people instead of keeping up meetings with Olmert," Abu Zuhri said.
The upcoming Abbas-Olmert summit came days after a short regional tour by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who used her visit to rally support for an American proposal to hold an international peace conference to resume the Middle East peace process.
On July 16, US President George W. Bush proposed to hold an international conference later this year that will group Israel, the Palestinians and some neighboring Arab states to help resume the stalled Middle East peace talks.
(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2007)
