Quartet meets, mulls new Palestinian government

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 (Reuters) The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators were prepared to endorse Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' effort to form a national unity government today although its platform is still unclear, diplomats said.

UN and European diplomats said a draft statement prepared for a ministerial meeting today would ''welcome'' Abbas' attempt to forge a coalition of his moderate Fatah party and the Hamas Islamist movement, which has so far refused to accept the existence of Israel.

The declaration, to be endorsed by ministers including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, would represent an easing of the United States' total boycott of the Palestinian Authority since it was taken over by Hamas earlier this year, the diplomats said.

Rice was joining foreign ministers of the European Union and Russia, plus United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to discuss how to revive Middle East peace talks.

The draft statement said the Quartet hoped the platform of the new unity government being negotiated between Hamas and Abbas would ''reflect'' Quartet conditions that it renounce violence, accept past agreements and recognize Israel.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said it was still unclear what Hamas had agreed to, with confusing signals emerging from the militant group.

''Everybody thought that when we got here, it would become clearer, but at the moment it's not really becoming clearer,'' Becket told reporters.

A US-led aid embargo and a ban on contacts with the Hamas-led government has contributed to worsening poverty and lawlessness in the Palestinian territories, and the Europeans are eager to ease the boycott.

WAY OUT Asked whether the United States agreed with the EU line to ease the boycott, European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said: ''As far as I know, more and more partners in the Quartet think this is the way out of the crisis.'' Abbas met US President George W Bush today hours before the Quartet meeting and aides said he told Bush he was trying to form a government that respected previous Palestinian-Israeli agreements.

He also urged Bush to re-activate the road-map plan, envisioning a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The Europeans hope a new unity government will adopt some wording accepting past Palestine Liberation Organization peace declarations in a way that satisfies the West's conditions for engagement.

US officials said Washington was skeptical about the proposed unity government, reflecting Israeli concerns that the government's platform must contain real recognition of Israel's right to exist and a commitment to end all violence.

The United States is not prepared to deal with Hamas at all and will only talk to Abbas, US officials say, noting the Palestinian leader has frozen talks on a unity government until he returns home from the United Nations.

Ferrero-Waldner said the EU wanted the Quartet to urge Israel to put some 500 million dollars in withheld Palestinian tax revenues into a temporary international mechanism created to channel foreign aid to Palestinians. The channel would bypass the current Hamas-led government.

While the United States has not signed on to the financial aid mechanism, US officials said Washington was prepared to accept its continuation and would not block it.

''The Americans have basically agreed to look out the window,'' said one diplomat.

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