Israel, U.S. to shun Palestinian unity govt

Israel, U.S. to shun Palestinian unity govt

"A Palestinian government that does not accept the Quartet's conditions, cannot receive recognition and there will not be cooperation with it," Olmert said in broadcast remarks.

He was referring to calls by international mediators for a unity government, which Abbas and the Islamist movement Hamas have agreed to form, to recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by existing interim peace accords.

"I spoke about this on Friday with the President of the United States, and I can tell you the Israeli and U.S. positions are completely identical," Olmert said at the start of the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting.

A unity deal that Abbas and Hamas leaders reached in Saudi Arabia this month fell short of meeting the conditions set by the Quartet, a group comprised of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

Starting a round of meetings with talks with Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz, Rice was asked whether there was agreement to boycott a unity government. She did not respond, although she said on Saturday such a decision had not yet been made.

"We are not going to render judgment (on a future unity government)," Rice's spokesman, Sean McCormack, said.

But McCormack made clear the United States was looking for a Palestinian government that fulfilled the conditions laid down by the international peace brokers.

Core issues

Rice has said she would like Monday's trilateral meeting to start looking at core issues ultimately leading to two states living side by side. But McCormack said he expected it would spend "some time" talking about the new unity government.

"We have acknowledged that this has made the situation more complicated and of course we will deal with that. But that does not mean she (Rice) is less dedicated to the process."

While publicly supportive of Abbas, a moderate whose Fatah faction was defeated by Hamas in an election a year ago, U.S. officials are becoming impatient with the Palestinian president, whose staff said he would not budge from the deal.

Senior Palestinian officials said Abbas replied angrily to a warning by a senior U.S. official on Saturday that Washington would unity government ministers, including Fatah members, if the Quartet's terms were not met.

"President Abbas ... shouted, saying: 'You are placing pressure on me. I have internal pressure -- the pressure is unbearable. The only alternative to this agreement is civil war,'" one Palestinian official said.

More than 90 Palestinians have been killed in recent factional warfare between Fatah and Hamas.

Both groups hope the unity deal can put an end to internal violence and also persuade Western donors to restore direct aid to the Palestinian Authority that was cut off after Hamas came to power.

Rice was set to meet Abbas later in the day in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he was expected to try to persuade the United States to give a unity government a chance.

In a break with usual protocol, a news conference has not been scheduled after their talks, indicating neither Rice nor Abbas want to highlight their differences in public.

While the usual handshake is expected to be recorded between Abbas and Olmert before Monday's meeting, U.S. officials said a joint news conference was not planned. Only Rice was expected to speak to the media.