Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will start their twice-monthly meetings next week, a Palestinian official said yesterday. In an interview to the Al-Arabya television channel, Abbas' political adviser Nimmer Hamad said that during the meeting, Abbas intends to raise the contested issues delaying agreement on a future permanent agreement between Israel and the PA.

According to Hamad, the issues include the question of Jerusalem, the borders of the future Palestinian state, the refugees and other problems affecting the lives of Palestinian citizens, among them humanitarian conditions.

The prime objective of the talks, according to Hamad, is to help build trusst between the two parties. He added that the meetings were meant to reach a "political horizon". In conclusion, Hamad called on Israel "not to delay contacts toward the release of Gilad Shalit," the Israel Defense Forces soldier who was abducted last June.

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Olmert aides have said he will only talk to Abbas about security and humanitarian issues, as well as a general political horizon, which they did not define. They said he could, however, start addressing final status issues once there is no more Palestinian rocket fire into Israel from Gaza and Hamas-allied militants release Shalit.

The bi-weekly meeting framework was devised by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to the area last month. However, Hamad's statements regarding the issues that will be discussed during the meetings run contrary to those Rice made during her visit.

Rice said the first talks between the two leaders would be on practical questions, not the final status issues that would define a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. She did not, however, rule out formal negotiations on those hard questions further down the line.

Meanwhile, Abbas and two cabinet ministers are embarking on a drive to win recognition and funding from Europe and the United States, ending a year-long boycott. Finance Minister Salam Fayyad is scheduled to meet EU officials in Brussels on Wednesday before traveling on to the U.S.

Fayyad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Brussels that he would try to persuade EU officials to restore assistance to the Palestinians, frozen last year after Hamas took over the Cabinet after winning the elections.

"I will tell the officials that I already activated the single bank account of the Finance Ministry, which guarantees credibility and accountability, and we need their help, Fayyad said. "We have a monthly bill of $160 million (120 million euros), and on the other hand, what we have in hand, is just $20 million (15 million euros), which we collect on a monthly basis as internal taxes."

After Abbas meets Olmert, he and Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr plan to leave on a 10-day trip to Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. Their visit will be aimed at urging the Europeans to lift sanctions now that a new unity government is in place, replacing last month the Cabinet made up only of Hamas members and backers.