Israel and the Palestinians are holding their highest-level summit in two years divided over a new US-backed international "road map" to peace.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's first talks with his new reformist counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday could provide an early sign on whether the three-phase peace plan based on reciprocal moves has any real chance of success.
The key question is who will take the first step under the proposal that Washington hails as a new opportunity for peace in the Middle East following the war in Iraq. The plan envisages an independent Palestinian state by 2005 and security for Israel.
Israel wants Abbas to carry out a mandated crackdown on Palestinian militants spearheading a bloody 31-month-old revolt. Palestinian officials say Israel must first bolster the new leader by relaxing its military grip in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Palestinians want for a state.
Comments by Sharon in a newspaper interview published on Friday hinted at a possible compromise to kickstart the plan: an Israeli troop pullback and truce in northern Gaza, where a Palestinian security chief would move against gunmen.
"If (the Palestinians) cannot control all the areas, then they should take a specific area and carry out steps that need to be carried out," Sharon told the Jerusalem Post.
Palestinian Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan, who has tangled with Islamic fundamentalists before as a Gaza security chief, is a member of Abbas's negotiating team.
Israeli officials have said northern Gaza, where Israeli forces seized a town on Thursday after cross-border rocket attacks by militants, could be a proving ground for the Palestinians, leading to wider pullbacks under the road map.