Israel inches closer to talks with Abbas on core issues

JERUSALEM, July 23 (Reuters) Israel is prepared to discuss ''in general terms'' core issues, including borders, in meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after insisting for months that they not be included, officials today said.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert still believes that talk of relaunching final status negotiations remained premature for now despite mounting US pressure, they said.

Western diplomats said pressure on Israel to do more to bolster Abbas would increase with the arrival in Jerusalem today of Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, as envoy for the Quartet of West Asia mediators.

Final status talks -- over common borders and the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees -- broke off six years ago.

Short of agreeing to restart those negotiations, a senior Israeli official involved in the discussions said Israel was preparing steps in the near-term to try to improve ''movement and access'' in the West Bank. This was expected to include the removal of some of the hundreds of Israeli roadblocks.

The official said Israel would then look at transferring responsibility for some West Bank areas to Abbas and his security forces. ''As soon as you start to transfer responsibilities, you get into borders,'' the official said.

Another senior Israeli official said Israel was willing to discuss with Abbas ''coordinated withdrawals'' from parts of the West Bank that could serve Abbas's interests.

Olmert and Abbas are expected to meet again as early as next week, possibly in the West Bank city of Jericho, officials said.

Under US pressure, Olmert agreed earlier this year to discuss with Abbas a so-called ''political horizon'', which Israel defined as the legal, economic and governmental structures of a future Palestinian state.

After US President George W Bush said last week that negotiations should also move towards a ''territorial settlement'', Olmert's office again ruled out any final status talks ''at this stage''.

But Olmert shifted tactics over the weekend, saying Israel would have to withdraw from ''many areas'' of the West Bank and suggested this could only happen through negotiations.

In an apparent nod to Washington, a senior Israeli official involved in the deliberations today said Olmert's talks with Abbas over a ''political horizon'' could also include ''talk in general about the core issues''.

The official would not say whether those issues had already been discussed between them.

But many analysts remained sceptical, citing the huge hurdles ahead. Olmert has been weakened by last year's war in Lebanon and the Palestinians are divided between Hamas Islamists in Gaza and Abbas's secular Fatah faction in the West Bank.

Reuters SY GC2308