Olmert tells Abbas he will speed prisoner releases

JERUSALEM, July 16 (Reuters) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today and promised to speed the release of 250 prisoners in a bid to shore up his West Bank administration against rival Hamas Islamists.

Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said the two leaders discussed ''how they can see arriving at a two-state solution'' to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But sources in Olmert's office said they did not discuss final-status issues such as the fate of Jerusalem, borders and Palestinian refugees. They met for two hours at Olmert's Jerusalem residence.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said it was ''shameful'' for Abbas to meet with Olmert while refusing to resume talks with Hamas Islamists who took control of the Gaza Strip last month.

Israel has described its decisions to free 250 low-security Palestinian prisoners, mostly from Abbas's Fatah faction, and to suspend kill-or-capture missions against 180 Fatah gunmen as goodwill gestures that could beget new peace talks with Abbas.

Eisin said Olmert would present the final list of prisoners to be released to a ministerial committee tomorrow. Israel would begin releasing prisoners as early as Friday after a 48-hour legal review.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian president urged Olmert to release jailed Palestinian political leaders including Marwan Barghouthi, an uprising leader who is seen as a possible successor to Abbas.

Olmert-Abbas summits have been taking place every few weeks, billed by both sides as confidence-building talks.

Later today, US President George W Bush was to make a speech in Washington that a senior aide said would reassert his support for Fatah leading the way to a Palestinian state coexisting with the Jewish state.

BLAIR ROLE The aide said Bush would also speak about the role of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as new envoy for the Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- which convenes on Thursday.

With 1.5 million Palestinians under Hamas rule in Gaza and the Islamist group, which swept legislative elections last year, refusing to recognise Abbas's dissolution of its government, the Western-favoured president needs to find a way forward.

Salam Fayyad, a reform-minded economist whom Abbas named prime minister to replace Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh, urged Israel to move beyond gestures toward crafting a two-state solution.

''In order to rebuild the faith of the Palestinian and Israeli publics in the peace process, we must tackle the short term and long term simultaneously,'' Fayyad said in an interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper.

An Israeli government official said about 100 of the 180 Fatah members who were given an amnesty have already turned in their guns and signed pledges not to carry out attacks against Israelis.

The official said the next meeting between Olmert and Abbas would likely take place in two weeks, possibly in the West Bank city of Jericho.

Fayyad has pledged to crack down on West Bank militants but said success hinged on Israel stopping its security sweeps.

Many of the Fatah gunmen spared Israeli crackdowns are expected to enrol in Palestinian security forces.

Olmert has said he will ease the military's curbs of Palestinian travel in the West Bank.

Abbas has also requested permission to bring into the West Bank weapons and military vehicles and the so-called Badr Brigade, a Fatah force based in Jordan, to bolster security.

Reuters KK GC1934