Israeli, Palestinian leaders to meet next week

JERUSALEM, July 9 (Reuters) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas next week to discuss security cooperation and humanitarian needs in the Palestinian territories, an Olmert spokeswoman said today.

''(Olmert and Abbas) will be meeting next week, but there is no time or venue set. They will discuss ongoing things like security and humanitarian issues, but also political horizons,'' spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

Senior Palestinian officials also said that no date had been set for the meeting.

The two leaders last met in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where they renewed a commitment to hold bi-monthly talks.

The upcoming meeting is expected to take place as early as Monday.

The Quartet of Middle East negotiators -- the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia -- will also hold talks in the region on July 16, but it is unclear if Olmert and Abbas will attend.

The Quartet meeting would be the first since the Western-backed Abbas dismissed a Hamas-led government after the Islamist group seized control of the Gaza Strip in June following weeks of fighting with Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

REUTERS SV BST2100