Abbas presses US to soften stance on unity deal

President Mahmoud Abbas appealed to Washington yesterday to soften objections to his Palestinian unity government with Hamas, telling a top envoy he had cut the best deal he could, aides said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here from Baghdad later yesterday to try to lay the groundwork for a three-way summit tomorrow with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

In preparatory meetings in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas told the American envoy, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, to give the unity government a chance, Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said.

"We told him that this agreement was the best we could get. We cannot change it. You either take it or leave it," said another Palestinian official who took part in the meetings but declined to be identified.

A threatened American and Israeli boycott of the power-sharing government between Abbas's Fatah and Hamas Islamists has overshadowed Monday's summit, set to take place in Jerusalem.

Initially billed as a chance to discuss establishing a Palestinian state, Israeli officials said the talks would focus instead largely on disagreements over the unity deal.