Sharon, Qorei may meet next week

A major hurdle to the much-delayed summit between the two premiers was cleared when Qorei dropped any precondition, including one on the controversial construction by Israel of a separation barrier with the West Bank.

"They managed to convince prime minister Abu Alaa (Qorei's alias) to give up putting forward preconditions," Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Eli Sheked told reporters in Cairo, adding "it's an Egyptian contribution."

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

On Friday, the top-selling Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot published an interview with Qorei, in which he confirmed a meeting was on the cards for next week.

"I don't want to come out of the meeting with a picture," he told the paper. "I want to come out with results. I want a positive message for both the Palestinians and the Israelis. I believe that the meeting will take place within days."

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told public radio from Washington, where he is scheduled for talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, that he also expected the meeting for next week.

The meeting "will herald the resumption of talks which will enable us to know whether or not we have a real partner ... who is ready for a negotiated solution putting an end to the conflict between us and the Palestinians," he said.

The first meeting between the two premiers since Qorei's new government was approved last month is aimed at putting the internationally drafted roadmap for peace back on track.

It is also hoped that it will consolidate a fragile period of calm on the ground, one of the longest since the start of the intifada despite the absence of an official truce.

On Friday, seven Israelis were injured in a pre-dawn attack at a holy site in the West Bank city of Nablus, which is said to be the burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph but whose access the army has banned to Jews for security reasons.

The hardline Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the ambush, which it said was to avenge the deaths of six Palestinians during an Israeli raid into the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah on Thursday.

"This attack was a rapid answer to the massacre of our martyrs in the Rafah refugee camp," said a statement by the group's military wing, the Al-Quds Battalions, received by AFP in Gaza City.

The massive operation launched by the army near the Egyptian border was aimed at capturing a senior leader of the group and sparked accusations by the Palestinian Authority that Israel was trying to scupper peace efforts.

"We confirm our choice of military resistance," the statement said. "We will teach the Zionist enemy a painful lesson and will strike deep inside Israel."