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Israeli PM Olmert hopes to meet with Palestinian leader

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed hopes of meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas soon, but prospects for peace talks remain slim, prompting the US to send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region next week to move things along.

In interviews on Thursday, Olmert ruled out releasing prisoners or offering other goodwill gestures to Abbas until a captured Israeli soldier is freed.

Relations between Israel and the Palestinians deteriorated after the radical Islamic Hamas party won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January and formed a Cabinet.

Previous plans for a summit between Olmert and Abbas -- a moderate from the Fatah Party -- were frozen after Hamas-linked militants attacked an Israeli army post on June 25, killing two soldiers, capturing a third and sparking a large-scale Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Reflecting the continuing tension, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz decided late on Thursday to close off the West Bank and Gaza, banning Palestinians from entering Israel from yesterday at midday until after the Jewish Yom Kippur observance, which ends on Monday evening.

Abbas has been trying to pressure Hamas to moderate its views, but efforts to form a national unity government -- which could lead to new peace talks -- have stalled.

Asked in an interview with Israel Radio when a summit with Abbas was likely, Olmert said: "I hope in the coming days, I hope. I, in any case, asked him. I told him that I would be happy to meet with him."

Abbas aides said he was not interested in a meeting with Olmert without assurances it would deal with more than the fate of Corporal Gilad Shalit, the captured soldier.

Palestinian lawmaker Saeb Erekat, an Abbas confidant and key negotiator, said there were no preparations for a summit.

"I think President Abbas said he is willing to meet Mr. Olmert. I hope we can prepare a meeting very well. Such meetings need preparation," he said.

Meanwhile, Israel has quietly backed off from its plan to assassinate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah because of the international condemnation that his killing would create, the Israeli daily Maariv reported yesterday.

During the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah that ended Aug. 14, Israel had targeted the Hezbollah leader for assassination, security officials said, according to Maariv. In a successful effort to evade assassination, Nasrallah went underground, though he repeatedly appeared in videos recorded at his hiding place that were broadcast on Lebanese television.

When the war ended, the army recommended that the efforts to kill Nasrallah be called off because his assassination would lead to mass international criticism of Israel and would ignite an even more violent war, Maariv reported. However, the government declined to call off the hunt, the newspaper reported.

Nasrallah emerged from hiding on Sept. 22 to address a massive rally in Lebanon celebrating Hezbollah's fight against Israel. Israel army officials determined they could assassinate him with an air strike during the rally, but dozens of bystanders would also be killed, Maariv reported.
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