Abbas calls for lifting of Palestinian blockade

PARIS, Feb 24 (Reuters) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas repeated a call for the lifting of an international economic blockade of a new Palestinian unity government after talks with French President Jacques Chirac today.

The Quartet of West Asia peace negotiators, comprising the United States, EU, Russia and the United Nations, is split over how to deal with the planned government between Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas, which Washington views as a terrorist group. Speaking after meeting Chirac, Abbas told reporters: ''What we asked for is that the new government that will be formed not be subjected to the same embargo to which the current government is being subjected.'' The Quartet repeated a demand on Wednesday that any Palestinian government renounce violence, recognise Israel and accept interim peace deals.

Though the unity government fell short of directly meeting those demands, Western diplomats said the agreement between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction widened divisions within the Quartet.

The United States and Israel want to continue to shun the unity government; Russia and some other European governments favour a softer line.

Abbas said he believed Wednesday's meeting was encouraging.

''I think the last meeting was a good meeting. The Quartet said 'Let's wait and see.' It wa not a rejection, it was an expression of a certain hesitation,'' he said in the courtyard of Chirac's Elysee Palace.

Abbas added that he had not lost hope for a lasting peace with the Jewish state.

''We cannot say there is anything that is completely hopeless. We must continue to try to work to find a solution. We must continue to talk to the Israelis. We are partners with the Israelis, partners for peace,'' he said.

The US-led boycott of the Hamas-led government has pushed the Palestinian Authority to the brink of financial collapse and raised poverty rates in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank.

A report by the UN World Food Programme, released on Thursday, estimated nearly half of Palestinians were unable to produce or access the food they needed.

REUTERS MS PM1852