Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met yesterday with France's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, who recently talked of recognising a Palestinian state even before its borders are drawn up.

The visit followed diplomatic tensions with Israel after France and other countries summoned Israeli diplomats to explain the alleged use of fake passports in the killing of a member of the Palestinian group Hamas.

Mr Abbas is meeting President Nicolas Sarkozy for a working lunch today. The foreign ministry con-firmed Mr Abbas's arrival yesterday but he and Mr Kouchner were not scheduled to make any public statements at their dinner.

Ahead of Mr Abbas's visit, Mr Kouchner was quoted as saying that in his view Palestinian statehood need not wait for the sensitive question of borders to be resolved - comments promptly dismissed by an Israel official.

"The issue before us at the moment is the building of a reality: France is training Palestinian police, businesses are being created in the West Bank," Mr Kouchner said in an interview in the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

"It follows that one can envision the proclamation soon of a Palestinian state, and its immediate recognition by the international community, even before neg-otiating its borders."

A senior Israeli official said yesterday that "granting recognition when the issues of the conflict have not been settled would add fuel to the fire.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.