Olmert offers Palestinian talks if soldier is freed

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will hold his first peace summit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas if gunmen in the Gaza Strip release a captive Israeli soldier, Mr Olmert's senior deputy said yesterday.

Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres's remarks came after a Bahraini newspaper quoted Mr Abbas as saying a deal was in place to free Corporal Gilad Shalit, whose abduction in a deadly June 25 border raid plunged Israeli-Palestinian ties to a new nadir.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas) should be invited to talks, and I believe the Prime Minister will do so in the coming days. Negotiations must be launched on the basis of the 'road map'," Mr Peres told Israel's Army Radio, referring to a US-led peace blueprint.

"When this (captive) situation is resolved, it (a meeting) will take place," he said.

Diplomacy between Israel and the Palestinians was deadlocked before Mr Shalit's capture, ever since Hamas Islamists took over the Palestinian Authority in March after defeating Mr Abbas's more moderate Fatah movement in elections two months earlier.

Israel, backed by Western nations, wants Hamas to abandon its charter calling for the Jewish state's destruction, and to renounce violence, as a precondition for talks. Mr Abbas argues he could still be Israel's interlocutor, circumventing Hamas.

An Abbas aide said the President had yet to be invited for a summit with Mr Olmert. The two leaders have met only informally, at a conference in Jordan, since Mr Olmert took power in May.

"We believe that any time Mr Olmert is ready to meet, the meeting should be very well prepared because what counts should be the substance," the aide, Saeb Erekat, said.

An Israeli political source said Mr Olmert has held off on a summit so far because he expects Mr Abbas to demand the release of some of the thousands of Palestinians jailed in Israel.