Palestinian leaders Abbas and Meshaal begin talks

DAMASCUS, Jan 21 (Reuters) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal began talks in Damascus today to try to ease the Palestinian political crisis and internecine fighting, aides to the two politicians said.

A meeting scheduled for late yesterday had been postponed after officials failed to reconcile differences over a new government and how it would deal with Western demands.

Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters the Islamist group did not expect today's talks to result in an agreement on a unity government.

''The main difference on the government's manifesto persists.

The meeting will convene to affirm that the two sides are committed to continue dialogue and reject the use of violence and spilling of Palestinian blood,'' Rishq said.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, an ally of Abbas, told reporters: ''Our message is forbidding infighting, stopping instigation and the formation of a national unity government.'' Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said there would be no new crisis if there was no full agreement.

''Ninety per cent of the issues have been agreed upon. The remaining issues include those relating to the political agenda and key ministries,'' Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza.

''With a more focused and comprehensive dialogue, we will be able to reach final understandings that will prepare the ground for the formation of a national unity government,'' he said.

(SYRIAN MEDIATION) Shara held separate talks with Abbas and Meshaal today in a last ditch effort to get the two men to meet. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem attended the meetings.

''We are seeing Syrian efforts at the highest level to convene this meeting,'' Rishq said earlier. ''Syrian officials are doing their best to bring the views of both sides closer.'' 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.

Hamas officials yesterday said the two politicians would discuss whom to appoint to the ministries of the interior, finance and foreign affairs in a unity government.

They also said talks between Abbas aides and Hamas officials in the past few days had reached an understanding that Haniyeh would lead the next government.

A senior Palestinian official in Gaza today said Hamas had agreed to give up the interior ministry to an independent figure, and that the finance ministry would go to Salam Fayyad, an independent.

''The discussions are now focused on whether Hamas will use the word 'respect' agreements between the PLO and Israel or 'will be committed to' agreements,'' the official, who asked not to be identified, said before Erekat's announcement.

Abbas arrived in Damascus yesterday and met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has close ties with Meshaal and allows the exiled Hamas leadership to live in Syria.

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