Egypt's Mubarak meets Abbas ahead of four-way summit

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at this Red Sea resort ahead of a four-way regional summit to be held later in the day.

Besides Abbas, Mubarak is expected to hold separate talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Jordanian King Abdullah II.

In addition, Olmert is set to hold bilateral talks with Abbas prior to the summit. It will be the first meeting between Olmert and Abbas after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip on June 14 following days of bloody fighting with Abbas' Fatah movement.

The four-way summit is sponsored by Egypt in the hope of bolstering Abbas and a Palestinian emergency government under Salam Fayyad following Hamas takeover of the Strip last week.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit earlier said the summit aimed to boost Palestinian-Israeli relations and ease the constraints on the Palestinians and create an appropriate climate for a resumption of the Mideast peace process.

The four-way summit drew criticism from deposed Hamas prime minister Ismail Haneya, who on Sunday said it would bring nothing to the Palestinians and accused Israel of boosting the differences among the Palestinians by supporting the emergency government.

The Israeli cabinet on Sunday decided to officially recognize the newly-appointed Palestinian emergency government, and approved the transfer of the withheld tax revenues to it.

On June 14, Abbas dissolved the unity government headed by Haneya, which took office on March 17, and declared the state of emergency in the wake of Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip.

On June 17, Abbas swore in the new emergency government headed by Fayyad in the West Bank, which was rejected by Hamas as " illegitimate."