Abbas, Hamas hold talks on Israel recognition

President Abbas met Hamas officials in his offices in Ramallah. Picture / Reuters.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has launched talks with the militant group Hamas and other factions to try to persuade them to accept a plan implicitly calling for recognition of Israel.

President Abbas met some two dozen officials of the factions behind closed doors for three hours to discuss the document, drawn up by Palestinian leaders held in Israeli jails, and to which Hamas has already objected.

A Hamas official at the meeting, held the West Bank town of Ramallah on Sunday local time, said some progress had been made, and other sources said the talks would continue on Monday.

"There is an atmosphere of optimism, we hope to reach positive results," Deputy Prime Minister Nasser A-Shaher of Hamas told reporters, though he added that no agreement had been reached.

But officials close to President Abbas said they doubted Hamas leaders abroad would agree to a change in the organization's stance towards Israel. Hamas's charter calls for Israel's destruction.

"This is a dialogue of the deaf", one official close to President Abbas said.

"There may be no way but to go ahead with the referendum," said Nabil Amr, another Fatah official.

Officials said President Abbas stood by the 10-day deadline he gave Hamas to accept the document or see it put to a public referendum next month - an ultimatum Hamas rejected on Saturday.

Hamas, the ruling party, is under pressure both from President Abbas and from an international financial boycott of the government that threatens to bankrupt the Palestinian Authority.

President Abbas is also trying to end a power struggle between his Fatah movement and Hamas that has intensified since the Islamic militant group scored a surprise electoral victory in January.

The prisoners' plan, based on previous Arab peace initiatives, calls for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and for Israel to withdraw from territories, including East Jerusalem, that it captured in the 1967 war.

In spite of its rejection by Hamas, the document carries weight because the prisoners who drew it up, jailed for violence against Israelis, are regarded as heroes by many Palestinians.

Israel has not responded to the plan and has vowed to set its borders with Palestinian territory unilaterally unless peace talks can be resumed within months.

- REUTERS