MIDDLE EAST:Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas held talks yesterday which yielded little sign of progress towards peace.
But Mr Olmert appeared to open the door to exploring whether a 2002 Saudi peace initiative could serve as an alternative track to an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
"The meeting was very frank and very difficult," said Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Abbas aide, who attended part of the 2½-hour session.
"Many issues were discussed, including the national unity government, which the Palestinian side stressed was an internal Palestinian affair," Mr Dahlan said.
Mr Olmert has vowed to boycott the coalition government which Mr Abbas is forming with Hamas unless it recognises Israel, renounces violence and accepts existing interim peace deals, as demanded by the Quartet of international powers.
However, Mr Olmert has promised to keep a channel of communication open with Mr Abbas, a policy promoted by the US, which plans to send secretary of state Condoleezza Rice back to the region in the next few weeks.
Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas spent part of the session in face-to-face talks without aides present and agreed to talk on a regular basis, an Israeli official said.
Before the meeting, the third both men have held since December, both sides played down any expectations of a breakthrough. Neither leader made statements at the start or end of these latest talks.
Earlier yesterday, fighting erupted in the northern Gaza Strip and a Hamas fighter was killed, the first fatality in such clashes since the movement agreed with Fatah to form a unity government a month ago.
Explosions from mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades shook the town of Beit Hanoun in the early hours after a shoot-out for which each side blamed the other.
The street fighting spread to Gaza City, leaving eight people wounded.
The violence broke out just hours after prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, said that a unity government could be announced as early as today.
Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state.
The group continues to say that it will not formally recognise Israel. Its 1988 founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, criticised the Hamas leadership over its deal with Fatah.
"The leadership of Hamas surrendered to the Jews most of Palestine to keep heading the Palestinian government," he said in an audio statement, parts of which were broadcast on al-Jazeera television yesterday.