Abbas says to meet Olmert within two weeks

CAIRO, Feb 26 (Reuters) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who agreed earlier this month to form a unity government with Islamist group Hamas, said today he would meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert within two weeks.

Abbas and Olmert met last week in Jerusalem in a summit with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The meeting ended with a vague promise about commitment to a two-state solution and tackled US and Israeli concerns over Abbas's deal with Hamas to form a national unity government.

Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Islamist group continues to say it will not formally recognise Israel and its 1988 founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

''We have agreed on a meeting soon in one week or two and we will continue our dialogue and consultations,'' Abbas told reporters in Cairo after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Abbas agreed earlier this month at a Mecca meeting to form a unity national government with Hamas.

Olmert has said he agrees with US President George W Bush to shun the new Palestinian government until it meets conditions set by the Quartet of Middle East mediators to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals.

The unity government agreement between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah group contains a vague promise to ''respect'' past Israel-Palestinian deals, but does not commit to abide by those pacts, or to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

Mubarak also met Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union's external relations commissioner, who said the bloc was considering making permanent a temporary mechanism created to aid needy Palestinians.

''It is still preliminary but we are thinking about creating a sort of permanent mechanism,'' she said, adding that this would channel aid to governance, institution building and economic development.

The European Union gave some 700 million euros to the Palestinian people last year while bypassing the Hamas goverment elected a year ago.

Ferrero-Waldner reiterated the European Union's position that it would decide how to deal with the new Palestinian government once it is formed and according to its policies.

REUTERS SAM RK2050