Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were scheduled to hold talks yesterday that are only likely to highlight their divisions over a Palestinian unity government whose formation appears imminent.
"We don't expect any results," a senior Abbas aide said of the meeting.
Olmert has vowed to boycott the unity government that Abbas is forming with Hamas Islamists unless it recognises Israel, renounces violence and accepts interim peace deals as demanded by the Quartet of Middle East mediators.
But the Israeli leader has promised publicly to keep a channel of communication open with Abbas, a policy promoted by the US, which plans to send US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice back to the region in the next few weeks.
Olmert and Abbas last met on Feb. 19 in trilateral talks with Rice that ended with no sign of progress towards resuming peace negotiations on Palestinian statehood broken off six years ago.
The Saudi-brokered Palestinian coalition agreement, which ended weeks of warfare between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah faction, contains a vague promise to "respect" previous Israeli-Palestinian interim peace accords.
But it does not commit the incoming government to abide by those pacts, nor to recognise Israel and renounce violence, conditions key to resumption of aid to the Palestinian Authority cut off by the West after Hamas came to power a year ago.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said the new administration could be announced as early as today.
Gunbattle
Palestinian gunmen from Hamas and Fatah exchanged fire in the Gaza Strip early yesterday, killing a local militia leader and wounding seven people in the most serious flareup of violence since a power-sharing deal between the political rivals last month.
Both sides blamed each other for starting the battle in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
Hamas said a truckload of Fatah gunmen opened fire on the militant group's forces near the town's sports club, killing Mohammed Kafarneh, a Hamas field commander.
Grenades
Fatah said the shooting began when Hamas attacked a compound of the security forces with rocket-propelled grenades. Later, Hamas and Fatah gunmen also exchanged fire for a few minutes in Gaza City.
In another incident, two Gaza fishermen were wounded when an Israeli navy vessel fired on their boat near the Gaza-Egypt border, Palestinian security officials said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Yesterday's death was only the second since last month's Saudi Arabia-backed ceasefire, which cleared the way for talks on setting up a Hamas-Fatah coalition government.
Violence
The violence followed an incident in the West Bank yesterday in which gunmen fired on the car of Prisoners Affairs Minister Wasfi Kabaha of Hamas, security officials said. Nobody was injured in the attack, which Hamas blamed on Palestinian security officials with ties to Fatah. Security officials said they did not know who carried out the attack.
The Palestinian unity government was intended to halt months of fighting in which more than 130 people were killed. But tensions have remained high since the accord was announced weeks ago.
Abbas hopes the coalition government -- to be formed within two weeks -- will also help end an international boycott of the year-old Hamas government and lead to a resumption of peace talks with Israel.
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