Abbas urges Hamas to respect deals, warns Israel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Hamas yesterday to renounce violence and Israel to talk peace with him, cautioning that a unilateral Israeli plan for the West Bank would fuel extremism.

In a speech to mark Nakba, a day of mourning for Palestinians recalling the day Israel was founded in 1948, Mr Abbas said Hamas, the Islamic movement that heads the Palestinian government, should honour existing peace agreements.

Palestinians should not be satisfied with "fiery speeches and slogans that could bring about international isolation", Mr Abbas said, repeating his long-standing call for Hamas "to renounce all forms of violence".

Appealing to Israel, where Mr Abbas is widely seen as a weak leader unable to engage in peacemaking while Hamas is in power, he said: "We want to make a just and permanent peace with you.

"Let's make this year the year of peace, let's sit at the negotiations table away from the policy of diktats and unilateralism. Stop making excuses there's no Palestinian partner, the partner is there," Mr Abbas, now on a visit to Russia, said in a pre-recorded address.

Hamas defeated Mr Abbas's Fatah movement in January polls and took office in March. It is sworn to Israel's destruction and has ruled out peace talks.

In a speech in a soccer stadium in the southern Gaza town of Rafah after Mr Abbas's address, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh rejected any change in Hamas's stance towards Israel.

"As I entered this stadium, a woman gave me this necklace telling me 'please do not make concessions', and I tell her and I tell all women and men of our people: I swear to God we will not make concessions," said Mr Haniyeh, a Hamas leader. As Mr Haniyeh spoke, an Israeli air strike on a car in the nearby town of Khan Younis wounded three Islamic Jihad militants. The Israeli military said they were "en route to carrying out an attack against Israel".

Mr Abbas made his peace offer a week before Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visits the White House to outline his plan to remove isolated Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, bolster major enclaves and draw a permanent frontier.

Mr Olmert and US President George W. Bush are also expected to discuss Iran's nuclear programme.

Announcing the May 23 visit, the White House said the talks would focus on "the strong bilateral relationship between the US and Israel as well as a wide range of regional and international issues".

In his speech, Mr Abbas warned Israel unilaterally setting "final borders", as Mr Olmert has pledged to do by 2010 if peace talks cannot be resumed, would increase violence and extremism.

He urged Israel to release the $55 million in monthly tax revenues it has withheld from the Palestinians since March.

Crowds gathered in the centre of Ramallah to hear Mr Abbas's speech over loudspeakers after standing in silence as sirens wailed to mark Nakba, or the great catastrophe, of 58 years ago.

Arab states attacked Israel the day after it was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. In the war, around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel.

Hamas now not only has virtually no income but has inherited government coffers it says were $1.3 billion in debt. Hospitals are short of medicine and 165,000 government employees have not been paid.

The EU said yesterday it hoped to get a new mechanism for channelling aid to the Palestinians, while bypassing Hamas, up and running soon.