Abbas and Meshaal set for crisis talks in Damascus

DAMASCUS, Jan 20 (Reuters) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal were due to meet late today in the Syrian capital to try to solve the crisis dividing their rival factions, a senior Hamas official said.

A power struggle between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah faction has led to violence in Gaza and the West Bank after talks on forming a unity government broke down late last year and Abbas called for fresh elections.

The two politicians would discuss whom to appoint to the key ministries of interior, finance and foreign affairs in a proposed unity government, the Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, told Reuters.

''The meeting is set to convene in the next few hours. Abu Mazen (Abbas) will meet Abu al-Waleed (Meshaal) and the rest of Hamas's politburo,'' he said.

''We are hoping tonight will result in solving the issue of the final language of the manifesto and those in charge of the three key ministries. This is not a last chance meeting. Both sides are aware that prolonging crisis and confrontation only serves Israel.'' Rishq, a Hamas politburo member, said talks between Abbas aides and Hamas officials in the past few days had reached an understanding that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh would lead the next government.

''This understanding will be hardened in the meeting tonight,'' Rishq said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said talks on a unity government were likely to resume within a few days.

Abbas arrived in Damascus earlier today and met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has close ties with Meshaal and allows Hamas' exiled leadership to lives in Syria.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Abbas told Assad that the programme of the next Palestinian government must meet conditions set by the West for the lifting of sanctions that have harmed the Palestinian economy.

''Why re-invent the wheel? We need a national unity government whose programme is able to attract international and regional support,'' Erekat said.

Speaking about the Meshaal-Abbas talks, Haniyeh said: ''We hope that the meeting will be successful. This is not a last-ditch effort, as some people would like to call it. There have been meetings before and there will be more meetings.

''A comprehensive national dialogue meeting will convene very soon in Gaza over the formation of a national unity government.

''We in the government support and sponsor this dialogue which is supposed to begin in Gaza in a few days.'' After the Hamas government took office in March, the West imposed sanctions designed to force it to recognise Israel, renounce armed struggle and accept past accords.

Meshaal told Reuters earlier this month that Hamas acknowledged that Israel's existence was a matter of fact.

He said Hamas's priority was to establish a Palestinian state on the land the Jewish state had occupied since 1967, not to entertain whether it should recognise Israel.

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