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MECCA, Saudi Arabia - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held crisis talks with Hamas in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in an effort to forge a unity government and end internecine violence that has killed scores since December.
"We want to create a unity government and that is everyone's demand. We want a government that can end the blockade," Abbas said in live television footage of the meeting overlooking the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site.
"Recent days have been very black and may God not allow them to return. It has been a catastrophe that must not be repeated. We don't want blood spilt."
More than 90 people have been killed since December in violence between Abbas' Fatah movement and Islamist group Hamas, which beat Fatah in a parliamentary election last year.
A deal on a unity government could help end an international blockade of Hamas, though Western countries have halted funding until the group recognises Israel and agrees to previous agreements with Israel signed by the Palestinian Authority.
Nabil Amr, an advisor to Abbas, said a major stumbling block had been removed with an agreement to name independents to the key posts of finance, foreign affairs and interior in a unity government, the first subject on the agenda.
Adding urgency to the Palestinian talks, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday he would meet Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on February 19, in a "significant" bid to restart long-stalled peace talks.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, who met Olmert and senior Palestinian officials on Wednesday, said Israel and the Palestinians could be edging towards a turning point in the effort to revive peace talks.
But with Israel and its ally the United States opposing a unity government unless Hamas meets Western demands to recognise Israel and renounce violence, that meeting could be in jeopardy.
Israel has already released US$100 million in Palestinian tax revenues to Abbas but may scale back any future goodwill gestures if Western demands are not met, a senior Israeli official said.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said he had come to the table determined to reach a deal that would end Palestinian divisions, though he made no specific mention of the unity government.
"We will not leave this place without agreement, God willing," Meshaal said, speaking after Abbas. "If it finds us unified, the international community will have to respect our wishes and lift the unjust blockade."
Saudi media have said there will be no Saudi interference in the talks, but the key US ally and traditional funder of the Palestinian Authority has tried to pressure Hamas over the past year, Western diplomats in Riyadh say.
King Abdullah, who called the talks, urged the Palestinian leaders on Tuesday to avoid a civil war that would put decades of gains in the struggle with Israel at risk, Saudi media said.
Fatah officials will also argue that a unity government must adhere to a 2002 Saudi-sponsored Arab peace initiative that offers Israel comprehensive peace in return for a Palestinian state.
"Israel sees important positive elements in the Saudi initiative," Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said.
Any agreement in Mecca, which officials said could take up to three days to hammer out, could fritter away when both factions return, as well as face US and Israeli rejection.
Previous efforts to stem the bloodshed and find common political ground have resulted in short-lived ceasefires and a threat by Abbas to call a new parliamentary election, a move Hamas has said would be tantamount to a coup.
- REUTERS
