Preparatory meeting for Sharon-Abbas summit set on Thursday: Erekat

A preparatory meeting for a summit between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will be held on Thursday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters Wednesday.

Erekat said he will meet on Thursday with Sharon's bureau chief to discuss all unresolved issues between the two sides, mainly the release of Palestinian prisoners, wanted Palestinian militants and opening border crossings and a security passage between Gaza and Israel.

Erekat said he will also raise the issue of releasing Ahmad Sadat, secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who is imprisoned in the West Bank city of Jericho under US and British custody.

Sadat and three other Palestinians were accused of planning and carrying out the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.

The Sharon-Abbas summit was originally slated for Oct. 2, but a resurging violence in Gaza pitting Palestinian militants and Israeli forces has put the meeting on hold.

The summit will be the first between the two leaders after Israel completed its withdrawal of soldiers and some 8,500 settlers from the Gaza Strip on Sept. 12, ending 38 years of occupation in the tiny coastal strip.

Source: Xinhua