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Olmert reportedly ready to restart peace negotiations

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has discussed with top aides the possibility of renewing peace negotiations with a Palestinian unity government, a newspaper reported yesterday.

He raised the idea -- provided key conditions are met -- at talks on Tuesday with Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, security and intelligence officials, the top-selling Yediot Aharanot said.

The three-hour talks came just days before Olmert will hold a first three-way summit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday.

"The agreement on the establishment of a unity government in the Palestinian Authority (PA) places the region at a juncture of a strategic decision of enormous significance, no less dramatic than what happened after Hamas's victory in the PA elections a year ago," Yediot quoted Olmert as saying.

"Israel must not appear to be breaking the rules and heading the efforts to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian government," Olmert was quoted as saying by Yediot.

The discussions came after news on Tuesday that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his Hamas-led Cabinet will likely resign today to make way for a unity government with the rival Fatah faction.

Haniyeh is expected to lead the new government, according to the terms of a deal agreed between Hamas and Fatah in Saudi Arabia last week which aimed to end factional warfare in Gaza and ease an economic embargo on the Palestinian Authority.

"The prime minister will submit his Cabinet's resignation within two days so that he can begin constitutional measures to form the unity government," said the official, who declined to be named.

In Jordan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Russian President Vladimir Putin the step would take place in the next two or three days "if there are no unpleasant surprises."

Putin, speaking on the last leg of a Middle East tour, was heard telling Abbas at Amman airport that he hoped economic sanctions Western donors imposed on the Palestinian Authority after Hamas came to power last year would be lifted soon.
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