Abba

JERUSALEM -- With help from an Egyptian cease-fire proposal for the Gaza Strip, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice persuaded the U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership yesterday to resume peace talks with Israel. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had halted the negotiations Sunday over an Israeli incursion into Gaza and had rebuffed Rice's entreaties Tuesday to change his mind. But after speaking to Abbas by telephone yesterday, Rice announced here that the talks are back on track.

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas suspended peace talks with Israel yesterday amid growing international criticism of the Jewish state's incursion into the Gaza Strip. Mounting casualties in Gaza drew protests from European and Arab capitals and sent thousands of Palestinians into the streets across the West Bank, where Israeli troops killed a teenager during a demonstration. The spike in violence during the past five days is a setback for U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had hoped during her visit here this week to advance peace talks that President Bush helped launch in November with the aim of an accord on Palestinian statehood by the end of his term.

JERUSALEM -- Hamas police in Gaza arrested an aide to the Ramallah-based Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, yesterday, holding the aide for questioning, a Hamas spokesman said. The aide, Omar al-Ghul, 56, is a political adviser on Gaza to Fayyad, who was appointed prime minister by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas took over Gaza in fighting last June. Ghul returned to Gaza from Ramallah to attend the funeral of his mother-in-law, and the Hamas police came to arrest him about 1:30 a.m., according to his son, Nadir al-Ghul, who is in Ramallah.

The leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed yesterday at a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis to begin "vigorous, ongoing and continuous" negotiations to try to reach a comprehensive peace settlement by the end of next year. President Bush read a joint agreement by the two sides at the start of a daylong gathering at the U.S. Naval Academy that illustrated both the promise and pitfalls that lie ahead. Middle East analysts said the agreement fell short of a breakthrough, and Bush emphasized that the pact was only a beginning to further negotiations.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Excluded from the Middle East peace conference in Maryland, Hamas yesterday summoned tens of thousands of its followers in the Gaza Strip to protest the gathering and reject any agreements that might grow from it. Demonstrators chanted "We will never recognize Israel!" and called Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas a "traitor" and "collaborator" for attending the U.S.-sponsored meeting. The protest was one of several this week by Palestinians and Israelis opposed to the peace conference.

JERUSALEM -- Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas have spent more time alone together than any previous pair of Israeli and Palestinian leaders. They have sat for hours, in 12 meetings over the past 11 months, sharing pictures of their grandchildren and talking about a world in which those kids can grow up in peace. Smoke fills Olmert's study as Abbas, puffing on Marlboro Reds, describes the crushing burden of Israeli occupation in the West Bank. The Israeli prime minister lights up a cigar, lecturing his guest on the need to stop Palestinian militias from plotting against his people.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sharpened the war of words against his Hamas rivals yesterday, saying it was time to "bring down" the militant group's regime in the Gaza Strip. Abbas' comments against Hamas, whose fighters defeated his Fatah faction to take control of Gaza five months ago, reflected his anger over a deadly clash in the coastal enclave earlier this week. "We have to bring down this bunch which took over the Gaza Strip by force and which is trading on the suffering and misery of our people," Abbas said in broadcast remarks marking the 19th anniversary of the Palestinian declaration of independence.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dedicated Yasser Arafat's sleek new mausoleum in a ceremony yesterday, drawing on his predecessor's continued popularity as he heads into peace negotiations with Israel. The dedication of the mausoleum, on the third anniversary of Arafat's death, was meant to boost Abbas' legitimacy as he faces a stiff challenge from the rival Hamas. Arafat died at age 75 in a French military hospital, after spending his final years under Israeli siege at his West Bank headquarters.

Jerusalem -- With two army helicopters escorting his motorcade, Ehud Olmert ventured into the West Bank yesterday to discuss the most divisive issues of a possible peace settlement, the first visit by an Israeli prime minister to Palestinian territory in seven years. "I am delighted to see you," Olmert said, embracing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas inside a heavily guarded hotel in the city of Jericho. The Israeli leader said he had come to discuss "fundamental issues" in the decades-old conflict, "hoping that this will lead us soon into negotiations about the creation of a Palestinian state."

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian officials said yesterday that Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, would meet tomorrow with the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, in the West Bank city of Jericho. An Israeli government spokesman could not immediately confirm the date or location of the proposed meeting but said that one would take place "very soon." A gap was already becoming apparent, though, between Palestinian expectations and Israel's stated intentions regarding what the meeting would cover.