Olmert non-committal on Palestinian unity pact

JERUSALEM, Feb 11 (Reuters) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today gave a non-committal response to a Palestinian unity government deal, saying Israel was examining details of the accord sealed in Saudi Arabia.

''Israel neither rejects nor accepts the agreements,'' Olmert said in his first public comments on the power-sharing pacts which the rival Hamas and Fatah factions signed in Mecca on Thursday.

''At this stage, we, like the international community are learning what was exactly accomplished and what was said,'' Olmert said in broadcast remarks at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

Olmert reiterated that Israel demanded that any new Palestinian government accept the three conditions raised by a ''Quartet'' of West Asia peace mediators for restoring Western aid to the Palestinian Authority.

The group, comprising the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, wants Hamas, an Islamist group that won election last year, to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace accords.

A political adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said yesterday the new government, expected to be unveiled in the coming days, would not recognise Israel.

Hamas and Fatah agreed to end factional warfare that has killed scores of Palestinians and to form a coalition, hoping the move would persuade Western powers to end crippling economic sanctions.

Israeli officials, speaking earlier on condition of anonymity, said on Friday the Palestinian deal did not meet the terms laid out by the Quartet.

The group repeated its demands of Hamas on Friday but withheld judgment on whether the unity deal had met those conditions.

Israel's Maariv newspaper said a three-way summit, scheduled for February 19, between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, Olmert, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, would take place owing to US pressure.

Olmert made no reference to the summit in his remarks to the cabinet.

He said he had spoken by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and received assurances that Moscow was sticking to the Quartet's stance.

In a statement on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry welcomed the unity deal and appealed for the lifting of a freeze on direct aid to the Palestinian government.

REUTERS SY BD1446