Olmert tells Abbas he will speed prisoner releases

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday Israel would start freeing 250 Palestinian prisoners by the end of the week in a bid to shore up Abbas's new government against Hamas.

Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said Olmert and Abbas discussed "how they can see arriving at a two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But sources in Olmert's office said they did not discuss final-status issues such as the fate of Jerusalem, borders and Palestinian refugees.

"The Palestinians want to go a lot faster. The average Israeli would like to go a lot slower. We have to find something that is acceptable to both sides," Eisin said.

Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki said the government, appointed by Abbas last month to replace a Hamas-led cabinet, did not "put much weight on these meetings".

"We are not sure about Israel's seriousness," he said.

Israel has described its decisions to free 250 low-security Palestinian prisoners, mostly from Abbas's secular Fatah faction, and to suspend kill-or-capture missions against 180 Fatah gunmen as goodwill gestures to bolster the new government.

Israel has already reopened the financial taps to Western-backed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's government while tightening the economic and security cordon around the Gaza Strip, which Hamas seized by force on June 14.

Eisin said Olmert would present the final list of prisoners to be released to an Israeli ministerial committee on Tuesday. She said Israel would begin releasing prisoners as early as Friday after at least a 48-hour legal review.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said Olmert refused Abbas's request to change the criteria by which Israel decides who to release. Olmert and Abbas met for two hours at Olmert's Jerusalem residence.

HAMAS ANGER

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said it was "shameful" for Abbas to meet with Olmert while refusing to resume talks with the Islamists.

Erekat said the Palestinian president urged Olmert to release jailed Palestinian political leaders including Marwan Barghouthi, an uprising leader who is seen as a possible successor to Abbas.

Erekat said Abbas also asked Israel to pull its West Bank forces back and refrain from raiding populated areas as a prelude to reaching a "mutual ceasefire".

Olmert-Abbas summits have been taking place every few weeks, billed by both sides as confidence-building talks.

Later on Monday, U.S. President George W. Bush was to make a speech in Washington that a senior aide said would reassert his support for Fatah leading the way to a Palestinian state coexisting with the Jewish state.

The aide said Bush would also speak about the role of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as new envoy for the Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- which convenes on Thursday.

With 1.5 million Palestinians under Hamas rule in Gaza and the Islamist group, which swept legislative elections last year, refusing to recognize Abbas's dissolution of its government, the Western-favored president needs to find a way forward.

An Israeli government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said about 100 of the 180 Fatah members who were given an amnesty have already turned in their guns and signed pledges not to carry out attacks against Israelis.

The official said the next meeting between Olmert and Abbas would likely take place in two weeks, possibly in the West Bank city of Jericho.

(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Adam Entous in Jerusalem, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)