Senior Palestinian officials said that in the last meeting between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert which took place three weeks ago, Abbas had requested that Olmert include the West Bank in the temporary cease-fire with militant organizations being observed in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas and Islamic Jihad both expressed willingness, but Israel refused," they told Haaretz.

The sources add that Olmert answered he would consider only this if the militant organizations refrained from firing rockets or carrying out attacks for a period of two weeks. Abbas retorted that a complete armistice was impossible as long as the IDF was targeting militants in the West Bank.

The officials also warn that unless biweekly meetings agreed upon by yield "tangible results," then they could serve to strengthen extremist parties.

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The sources passed criticism on U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's announcement regarding the American-brokered negotiation plan last week.

"Yoram Turbowicz, Olmert's chief of staff, and his Palestinian counterpart, Rafiq Al-Hussein, meet on a weekly basis, to no avail. Rice's solution is just an attempt to appear as though she had made some sort an achievement," the sources say.

"If they go on meeting without the release of prisoners or other gestures, we ourselves will supply Hamas with the weapons it wants," they said.

According to the sources, the meetings generate anticipation of change in the Palestinian public. "If the results fail to meet their expectations, then disappointment will ensue, and so will criticism of Abbas," they said.

On Sunday, Abbas met with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He told her the PA intended to go through with the meetings, and reiterated his request that the European Union end its embargo on the Palestinian government.

Abbas' aide and prominent Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan said this weekend that the PA was not opposed to the continuation of talks with Israel, but was working under the assumption that Olmert's cabinet lacked the interest or ability to promote such negotiations.

"Every time an Israeli official is accused of sex offenses or corruption, the EU pleads with us to help Olmert out because of he is in hot water again," he said. "We have no problem talking, the problem is in Israel."


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