Abbas presses US to soften stance on unity deal

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb 17 (Reuters) President Mahmoud Abbas appealed to Washington today to soften objections to his Palestinian unity government with Hamas, telling a top envoy he had cut the best deal he could, aides said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will arrive later Today to try to lay the groundwork for a three-way summit on Monday with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

In preparatory meetings in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas told the American envoy, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, to give the unity government a chance, Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said.

''We told him that this agreement was the best we could get.

We cannot change it. You either take it or leave it,'' said another Palestinian official who took part in the meetings but declined to be identified.

A threatened American and Israeli boycott of the power-sharing government between Abbas's Fatah and Hamas Islamists has overshadowed Monday's summit, set to take place in Jerusalem.

Initially billed as a chance to discuss establishing a Palestinian state, Israeli officials said the talks would focus instead largely on disagreements over the unity deal.

After a surprise trip to Iraq, Rice will meet Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem this night. She will hold separate talks with Abbas and Olmert tomorrow.

Rice said Washington would wait to see how the unity government takes shape before deciding on US policy.

Earlier this week, however, senior Palestinian officials and Western diplomats said Washington had warned Abbas it would shun the new government, including non-Hamas ministers, if it does not recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals as called for by the ''Quartet'' of Middle East mediators.

Abu Rdainah said today: ''The American position has not been crystalised.'' A ''QUIET CHANNEL'' Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the goal of the three-way summit was to ''launch a quiet channel, as President Abbas has requested, to explore how to get to our objective of a Palestinian state. We want to define the objective and to define the way to get there.'' Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said yesterday he hoped to form the unity government with Abbas's Fatah faction within three weeks, but its future looked bleak because of opposition from the United States and Israel.

Rice acknowledged prospects for Monday's summit were ''more complicated'' due to the planned Hamas-Fatah coalition.

The unity agreement, signed by Abbas after talks with Hamas leaders in Mecca, makes no explicit commitment to recognise Israel or renounce violence.

A letter from Abbas reappointing Haniyeh as prime minister contains a vague call to Hamas to ''abide'' by Palestinian and Arab resolutions that include recognition of Israel, and to ''respect'' past agreements and international law.

The United States has struggled to maintain a united front within the Quartet, which also includes the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

Even if some Arab and European countries resume aid, Western diplomats said the impact would be limited.

Without US support, regional and international banks will be reluctant to resume transfers to the Palestinian government, Palestinian bank executives said.

Israeli government sources said the Jewish state will likewise refuse to hand over any additional Palestinian tax revenues to Abbas.

Reuters SP RN2010