Abbas to press US to soften stance on unity deal

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb 17 (Reuters) President Mahmoud Abbas will appeal to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to soften objections to a Palestinian unity government that could block a new peace push before it starts, aides said today.

A threatened US and Israeli boycott of the power-sharing government between Abbas's Fatah and Hamas has overshadowed Monday's planned Israeli-Palestinian-US summit, initially billed as a chance to discuss establishing a Palestinian state.

Rice will meet separately with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tomorrow to lay the ground for the three-way summit on Monday.

She arrives in Jerusalem later today after a surprise trip to Iraq and will meet Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

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

But Palestinian officials and Western diplomats said senior US State Department officials have warned Abbas that Washington 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 West Asia mediators.

''We will ask the US administration to deal with the new government and to press the Israelis to revive the peace process if they really want to empower President Abbas,'' a Palestinian official told Reuters.

Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the goal of the 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 today 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 three-way 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, inhibiting its ability to receive funds from abroad, Palestinian bank executives said.

Israeli government sources said the Jewish state will likewise refuse to hand over any additional Palestinian tax revenues to Abbas. The tax revenues are a key domestic source of revenues to pay Palestinian government salaries.

REUTERS SP PM1722