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President Bush and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the Oval Office of the White House on Tuesday. (AP)
Last update - 03:31 22/06/2007
PM: Egypt summit could pave way for new beginning between Israel, PA
By Aluf Benn, Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday a planned summit in Egypt involving Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian leaders could lead to a new beginning in bilateral relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Speaking at a United Israel Appeal fundraising event in Haifa late Thursday, Olmert said the purpose of the summit was to "jointly work to create a platform that may lead into a new beginning between us and the Palestinians."

He said U.S. President George W. Bush hopes to fulfill his goal of creating a Palestinian state before he leaves office in early 2009.
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Egypt said Thursday the summit would aim to boost Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as the U.S. ally moved to isolate the Hamas militant group after its takeover of Gaza.

A day after Monday's summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is to hold talks with Saudi King Abdullah, aiming to unify a bloc of Arab nations in support of Abbas and against Hamas.

Beyond looking to keep the peace process going after the stunning events in Gaza, Egypt and other Arab countries fear the impact of radicals' control, which could give a boost to Islamic opposition groups on their own soil.

Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have already announced that the West Bank-based cabinet set up by Abbas is the sole legitimate Palestinian government. After Hamas' Gaza takeover, Egypt withdrew its mediators from Gaza, provided refuge to fleeing Fatah security personnel and moved its embassy from Gaza to the West Bank.

Meanwhile Thursday, a top official from Egypt's ruling National Democratic party said Egypt will do its best to curb attempts to establish an Islamic state in Gaza.

"Its not in Egypt's interests [to permit] the presence of a religious state on its borders, and it will do its best to end such a presence," Ali Eldin Helal, head of the media secretariat in the NDP said Thursday.

Mubarak has invited Olmert, Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II to attend a summit in Egypt early next week.

The regional summit is scheduled to take place at the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, and aims to give a push to the Palestinians' relations with Israel, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Thursday.

David Baker, a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, confirmed Thursday that there will be a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, saying the purpose of the summit will be to strengthen moderates and to further the Israeli-Palestinian agenda.

The summit follows a violent Hamas takeover in the Gaza Strip last week and the establishment of an emergency government in Ramallah over the weekend.

Senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said Thursday that the Palestinians would demand concrete results from the gathering, and warned that if it ended without results, it would do more harm than good.

Saeb Erekat, another senior Abbas adviser, said Thursday that the PA chairman would call for a resumption of peace talks with Israel at the summit, arguing that only progress toward Palestinian statehood can serve as a true buffer against Hamas.

"The most important thing to realize is that time is of the essence," Erekat said. "We need to deliver the end of occupation, a Palestinian state. If we don't have hope, Hamas will export despair to the people."

As immediate steps, Erekat said, Abbas will ask Israel to remove West Bank checkpoints that disrupt daily life and trade, and to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax funds Israel froze after Hamas came to power last year.

Olmert reached an understanding with United States President George W. Bush during his visit to Washington on Tuesday that it is necessary to support Abbas, a senior political source in Jerusalem said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, for the first time since the new Palestinian government was established, senior level contacts between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were initiated on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke Wednesday on the telephone with Salam Fayyad, the PA prime minister, and discussed the implications of the Hamas takeover in the Gaza Strip.

In his first address to the Palestinian people since the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Abbas went on the offensive Wednesday and angrily lashed out at the Islamic militants, accusing them of trying to build an empire of darkness in the Strip and pledging he would not talk to murderous terrorists
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  1.   Stop these Informal meetings and start FORMAL PEACE TALKS NOW!!!! 03:29  |  MOE 21/06/07
  2.   Bush and Olmert wake up from the Coma 04:16  |  Larry 21/06/07
  3.   Bush and Olmert wake up from the Coma Part2 04:18  |  Larry 21/06/07
  4.   Councils of Despair 04:22  |  Rick L 21/06/07
  5.   and the little poodle, `olmert will run on all fours 05:01  |  chaim schonbrun 21/06/07
  6.   summit of stooges 05:47  |  ravi 21/06/07
  7.   Two State Solution 07:02  |  smeze75 21/06/07
  8.   If Israel is a democracy why doesn`t it recognize Hamas 07:57  |  Mark Kienan 21/06/07
  9.   "The Palestinians demand concrete results..... 09:03  |  R 21/06/07
  10.   #5 chaim schonbrun 09:18  |  Michael 21/06/07
  11.   The second and LAST chance for Olmert and Abbas 10:22  |  Swiss (Dino) 21/06/07
  12.   New chance for the Middle East 10:26  |  Michael 21/06/07
  13.   Time to propose Jordanian and Egyptian in a solution. 10:27  |  Avihu 21/06/07
  14.   the meeting number 1000;useless 10:39  |  kad 21/06/07
  15.   Abbas needs progress and all they give him is talk 10:54  |  Michael 21/06/07
  16.   some issues to consider 10:58  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 21/06/07
  17.   TERRIBLE DANGER AHEAD 10:59  |  Lemar 21/06/07
  18.   #6 Understand what democracy is 11:05  |  Lemar 21/06/07
  19.   MOE, who are "them"? Are we, Jews, a people? If yes, please out 11:22  |  Akiva 21/06/07
  20.   Olmert who? 11:50  |  Paul 21/06/07
  21.   #10, Dino 11:56  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 21/06/07
  22.   End violence in Gaza 12:30  |  Charles Oren 21/06/07
  23.   # 21 Cipora Julianna Kohn 12:34  |  Swiss (Dino) 21/06/07
  24.   Swiss (Dino) 13:47  |  Gil 21/06/07
  25.   It is the Check Point...Stupid 13:49  |  Darwish 21/06/07
  26.   if it ended without results, it would cause more harm than good. 13:54  |  Pierre Frankel 21/06/07
  27.   As usual, it takes someone other than an Israeli 14:23  |  Tim 21/06/07
  28.   Darwish, what is more inhumane: 1) to have checkpoints so that 14:25  |  Asaf Noyman 21/06/07
  29.   # 24 Gil 14:31  |  Swiss (Dino) 21/06/07
  30.   Time is running out, and so are the opportunities for peace 14:31  |  Ivar 21/06/07
  31.   A True Window of Opportunity 14:44  |  Robin 21/06/07
  32.   THe summit of Zambis -next hypnosa session 15:45  |  Sal 21/06/07
  33.   Egypt, is where you turn to, when .. 15:50  |  Sharif Hafez 21/06/07
  34.   16 Cipora - More Importantly 17:17  |  Mark of Lewiston 21/06/07
  35.   THE HAMAS PARADOX 17:31  |  Luna 21/06/07
  36.   Its time for the palestinian state 17:34  |  Simon Tarlovsky 21/06/07
  37.   Mubarak, Abdallah & Abbas against Olmert. 17:55  |  Nora 21/06/07
  38.   To Simon Tarlovsky 18:00  |  PalEye 21/06/07
  39.   End the fiction of a 2nd Palestinian state 18:07  |  Jonathan S 21/06/07
  40.   #16 Cipora and #21 Swiss (Dino) 18:09  |  Smadar 21/06/07
  41.   Time for peace negotiations 18:43  |  Tosefta 21/06/07
  42.   # 40 Smadar (1) 18:55  |  Swiss (Dino) 21/06/07
  43.   Response to Simon Tarlovsky 18:59  |  Simon Tarlovsky 21/06/07
  44.   re: # 13 Avihu 19:03  |  Oleg 21/06/07
  45.   # 40 Smadar (2) 19:04  |  Swiss (Dino) 21/06/07
  46.   The rotten fruit of the Olmert- Bush policy 19:18  |  Tosefta 21/06/07
  47.   Oh what a tangled web we weave... 19:33  |  Hannah 21/06/07
  48.   Some crazy suggestions in this Talkback 19:42  |  Keith T 21/06/07
  49.   to #8 democracy 19:53  |  ZS 21/06/07
  50.   #11, Swiss Dino 19:55  |  Hannah 21/06/07
  51.   Tosefta: The rotten fruit of Hamas`s policy 20:06  |  Polybios 21/06/07
  52.   Tosefta, 41/46 20:08  |  Walt Schweitzer 21/06/07
  53.   Egypt monday`s summit , an other Simpson episode 20:10  |  Joseph E. 21/06/07
  54.   #19, Akiva 20:19  |  Hannah 21/06/07
  55.   #8 Mark Kienan 20:23  |  Chris 21/06/07
  56.   indrajaya, where is Alan Johnston you promised free last Sunday 20:23  |  Genuine Tosefta 21/06/07
  57.   the Arab Block on Monday`s summit must show Derbat Al Mu`alem 20:24  |  Joseph E . 21/06/07
  58.   I don`t get the logic (W. Schweitzer #52) 20:27  |  Tosefta 21/06/07
  59.   #48 To tango you must be two! 20:28  |  Chris 21/06/07
  60.   to # 3 = Israel packed up and left ? 20:28  |  Hami 21/06/07
  61.   Hannah 20:35  |  Polybios 21/06/07
  62.   # 50 Hannah (1) 20:39  |  Swiss (Dino) 21/06/07
  63.   #27, Tim 20:40  |  Hannah 21/06/07
  64.   another path toward peace 20:40  |  Paolo 21/06/07
  65.   37..nora... maybe youre right 20:40  |  ravi 21/06/07
  66.   Egypt: Monday`s summit aims to boost Abbas, isolate Hamas 20:47  |  JOHNNY 21/06/07
  67.   # 50 Hannah (2) 20:52  |  Swiss (Dino) 21/06/07
  68.   Polybius #51 20:54  |  Tosefta 21/06/07
  69.   Fake Tosefta Alert #56 20:56  |  Tosefta 21/06/07
  70.   #35, Luna 21:07  |  Hannah 21/06/07
  71.