Palestinian president on first visit to Morocco

RABAT, Apr 12 (Reuters) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas flew to Casablanca today on his first official trip to Morocco following newspaper reports the city may host secret Israeli-Palestinian talks next month, officials said.

Abbas is due to hold talks with king Mohammed in Casablanca later today and then meet Prime Minister Driss Jettou and other top government leaders in Rabat during his three-day official visit to the North African Arab country, they added.

It is Abbas's first official trip to Morocco since his election in early 2005.

Moroccan newspapers reported this week that Casablanca will host secret talks between senior Israeli and Palestinian officials early in May in a bid to revive the peace process, which became stalled before an uprising broke out in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2000.

Government officials in Rabat were not immediately available to comment on the reports.

Israeli government officials were also not available to comment due to the Passover holiday.

Morocco was instrumental in bringing Israeli and Palestinian leaders together in a series of secret meetings it had hosted before they reached the now-stalled peace accord early in the 1990s.

Abbas had offered to resume peace talks with Israel as soon as it formed a new government, even though the Israelis are shunning the Palestinian Authority led by his Hamas rivals.

Israel has said it will not deal with Hamas, which is sworn to the Jewish state's destruction, but has left the door open to negotiations with Abbas, whose once-dominant Fatah movement was defeated by Hamas in parliamentary polls.

Diplomats in Rabat said Abbas's talks with King Mohammed and other government leaders would focus on support to ease pressures on the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.

Since Hamas took power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on March 29, Israel has put intense financial, diplomatic and military pressure on the new government.

The United States and the European Union have cut direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is burdened with about 1.3 billion dollars of debt and unable to pay salaries due to 140,000 staff.

Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, who is also a senior Hamas leader, was not accompanying Abbas on his trip to Morocco but Arab diplomats said the move might be normal as Abbas and his predecessor late Yasser Arafat travelled often without a foreign minister.

REUTERS SHR BD0057