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JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday he would meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on February 19 in a renewed bid to revive stalled peace talks.
Olmert also said he was ready to negotiate with any Palestinian government, including one with Hamas, as long as it met Western demands to recognise the Jewish state.
"The meeting will take place on the 19th," Olmert said in a speech to American Jewish leaders, referring to the talks proposed by Rice during her recent visit to the region.
Olmert did not say where the meeting would take place.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed the date for the meeting and said its goal was for both sides to start discussions on issues relating to the framework of a Palestinian state.
Despite factional violence that has killed more than 90 in the Palestinian territories since December, the United States believed it was important to try and push the peace process forward, McCormack said.
"She (Rice) firmly believes that there are the underpinnings in the region that exist to make some progress, to exploit an opening and try to bring the sides closer together," he added.
Olmert said he hoped Abbas, due to meet Hamas leaders in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, would not forge a unity government with Hamas that stopped short of meeting Western demands to recognise Israel and renounce violence.
"I hope that Abu Mazen will resist all the temptations and all the pressures to co-operate with Hamas and to establish a government that does not recognise these basic principles," Olmert said, referring to guidelines set by the Quartet of the US, United Nations, Europe and Russia.
"If the Palestinian government, no matter who is part of it, will accept the basic principles of the Quartet ... then of course it would pave the way for further negotiations with Israel," and pose a "chance for major progress," he said.
Abbas' Fatah movement and Islamic group Hamas have been locked in a battle for power.
The fighting escalated in Gaza in December after Abbas angered Hamas by calling for an early election when talks to form a unity government failed.
In the latest violence, a Hamas commander was killed and three other members of the group were wounded on Tuesday in a shooting blamed on Abbas' Fatah faction. A Fatah spokesman denied their involvement in the shooting.
Olmert, commenting for the first time on the Palestinian infighting, said Israel would remain on "the sidelines" for now.
"But we will not be able to stretch our patience beyond a certain limit," Olmert added, suggesting Israel would take steps to ensure the Gaza violence did not spill over into renewed attacks on the Jewish state.
- REUTERS
