Olmert expected to meet Abbas next week

JERUSALEM, May 8 (Reuters) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will soon meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, resuming US-brokered talks delayed by a political crisis within the Israeli government, Olmert's office said today.

Miri Eisin, spokeswoman for the prime minister, declined to give a date for the meeting but an Israeli government source said it would take place next week, most likely in the West Bank city of Jericho.

Saeb Erekat, an Abbas aide, said: ''In principle we are not against any meeting. We haven't agreed on a date.'' Olmert's office also announced that he would visit Jordan on May 16 to meet Jordanian King Abdullah and attend a conference.

The Israeli leader's political future has been clouded by criticism levelled by a domestic inquiry over his decision to launch last year's war against Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas.

Olmert has resisted public pressure, including from his own foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, to step down over the interim findings by the government-appointed commission.

Ex-prime minister Ehud Barak, a candidate to lead the Labour Party, Olmert's senior coalition partner, also called on him to quit but said that if he was elected on May 28, he would agree to serve for a limited period as defence minister in the current government.

Some Israeli officials said the postponement of an upcoming visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came as a surprise and raised questions about whether Washington was distancing itself from the embattled prime minister.

But US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington: ''We work very closely with Prime Minister Olmert ... We are working very closely with him and his government as we speak on ... Israeli-Palestinian issues and how to move that process forward.'' Trying to step up pressure on Olmert, opposition lawmakers said they had collected enough signatures to force him to appear before parliament to answer questions about the war report.

A return to peace contacts could bolster the Israeli leader.

Olmert's talks with King Abdullah are expected to focus in part on an Arab League peace initiative under which Israel would withdraw from all the territory it seized in the 1967 Middle East war in return for normal relations with the Arab world.

RICE VISIT At Rice's urging, Olmert and Abbas agreed to meet once every two weeks. They last held talks on April 15, but Olmert's political troubles have raised speculation further meetings might be delayed for weeks if not longer.

The two men have been discussing the future shape of a Palestinian state in addition to day-to-day issues which include easing restrictions in the West Bank.

Washington has presented timeline for Olmert to lift certain checkpoints and roadblocks to allow greater freedom of movement, while in return Abbas would by mid-June start deploying his forces to halt rocket fire and smuggling by Gaza militants.

Most militant groups meeting in Gaza on Tuesday night said they would only agree to a truce if Israel ended its occupation of the West Bank and stopped its raids to seize suspected militants and other military operations there first.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported Olmert and Abbas have opened a secret back-channel, going beyond discussions about confidence-building steps such as easing travel restrictions on Palestinians and ending militants' rocket attacks on Israel.

Both sides denied any secret talks, though Eisin said their top aides have been meeting regularly in private.

Olmert has publicly ruled out discussions with Abbas on final-status issues such as borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees unless a Hamas-led unity government recognises Israel and renounces violence.

Rice was expected to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories around May 15 but the trip has been pushed back.

''Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas are working on another meeting and Secretary Rice will be back out there soon, ... I'd expect, in the near future,'' McCormack said.

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