Olmert sees a "new beginning" with Palestinians

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday will create a "new beginning" between Israel and the Palestinians.

"I am going to meet with President (Hosni) Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Abu Mazen (Abbas) of the Palestinian Authority this coming Monday to jointly work to create the platform that may lead into a new beginning between us and the Palestinians," Olmert told a conference at Haifa.

"We will have the support and the involvement of the United States of America, whose leader George W. Bush, wants to realize while he is in office, the dream of creating a Palestinian state, which lives alongside the state of Israel in peace and security," Olmert said.

Olmert, who met Bush in Washington on Tuesday, will meet the Western-backed Abbas at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the first time in two months.

Abbas sacked a three-month-old unity government he formed with Hamas after the Islamist group's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip and formed an emergency government earlier this week.