Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will hold new talks soon amid speculations that Israel's planned Gaza strip withdrawal will be postponed.

Sharon and Abbas have decided to meet again in the near future,a statement from Sharon's office on Friday afternoon said. It added that the decision was made after Abbas phoned Sharon and Israeli President Moshe Katsav "to send them and the Jewish people his best wishes" for the Jewish Passover holiday.

The last Sharon-Abbas meeting was held in February in Egypt, where they declared a ceasefire to end the Israel-Palestine violence which has lasted for over four years.

The two leaders agreed to press ahead in their coming meeting with the various issues that are on the agenda, said the statement,which, however, gave no date of their meeting.

The Palestinians are keen on coordinating efforts with Israel to implement the planned Israeli pullout from Gaza and part of theWest Bank, Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan Al-Khatib told Cairo-based Voice of the Arabs radio on Friday.

"The Palestinians are keen on seizing every peace opportunity and are ready to coordinate future steps with the Israelis," he said.

His remarks came after US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch and Deputy National Security Adviser Eliot Abrams met Palestinian and Israeli officials on the pullout this week.

The US officials said the Palestinians were more willing than before to coordinate the expected Israeli pullout, according to the minister.

On Thursday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres met in Jerusalem to coordinate ways to implement the pullout plan.

Later in the day, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian Minister of Civilian Affairs Mohammed Dahlan also met and agreed to form coordination mechanisms ahead of the pullout

and to continue meetings till the implementation of the evacuation.

The pullout plan calls for a withdrawal of Israeli forces and

settlers from all 21 settlements in Gaza and four out of the 120

in the West Bank this summer.

The withdrawal of settlers from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank will be postponed by three weeks to Aug. 15, local newspaper Ha'aretz reported Friday.

The daily quoted an unnamed official of Sharon's office as saying that Sharon will approve the delay.

Sharon is expected to announce the delay after the week-long Passover which begins on Saturday, Sharon's spokesman Asaf Shariv said on Friday.

Sharon hinted his inclinations on Monday to delay the expected

pullout scheduled for late July following a request by chief Sephardic rabbi Shlomo Amar who said religious Jews shall not move houses during the three-week traditional mourning which will end on Aug. 14.

Israel stepped up security on Friday ahead of the Passover, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades announced it will not abide by the calmness agreed by Palestinian factions in response to the Israeliincursion into a Palestinian refugee camp.

The Israeli troops sealed off the entire West Bank, saying the closure will last until Sunday.

At least five Palestinians were arrested by Israeli troops Friday during their incursion into the West Bank, Palestinian sources and eyewitnesses said.

Meanwhile, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the mainstream Fatah movement, said Friday that the group will not abide by the calmness agreed by Palestinian factions in Cairo in mid-March.

The revocation came in response to an Israeli incursion into the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank on Friday dawn, which was aimed at killing two militants of the group, said Nassir Abul Aziz,the group's spokesman.

However, the two Aqsa members escaped the assassination attempts, with one of them slightly injured, said the spokesman.

The incursion came after an Aqsa leader in the refugee camp was killed by Israeli troops last week. The spokesman urged Israel to stop all violations of calmness, which was agreed by 13 Palestinian groups at the Cairo Dialogue on March 17.

Source: Xinhua