Visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday that his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday was "difficult and tense" but it was not a failure.

"The meeting was difficult and tense, but it was not a failure and it will be followed by other meetings," Abbas told Jordan's Petra news agency after his talks with King Abdullah II.

The three-way summit in Jerusalem ended on Monday, but failed to achieve tangible progress other than a repeated commitment to a two-state solution to Palestinian-Israeli problem.

Abbas said that "Israel may have misunderstood" the agreement reached between two mainstream Palestinian movements of Fatah and Hamas in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on Feb. 8.

"The agreement is an expression of support for Palestinian interests, but Israel may have misunderstood it", said Abbas, adding that he had told Israel that this agreement was made to protect the unity of the Palestinian people and its national interests.

Leaders of Fatah and Hamas movements agreed in the Mecca agreement to form a national unity government in a bid to end infighting and lift the West's sanctions.

Earlier on Tuesday, Abbas arrived in Amman on the first leg of his Arab and European tour aimed at earning supports for the Mecca agreement. He and Rice, who is also in Amman, held talks with the Jordanian King separately.

Source: Xinhua