GAZA CITY, May 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas failed Thursday, May 22, to convince the leading Islamic resistance movement Hamas to halt operations inside Israel during a meeting with its top leadership, sources close to the talks said.

Abbas, under pressure from Israel and the United States to bring an end to the 32-month-long Al-Aqsa Intifada, met with senior Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Rantissi and two other top figures, Ismail Abou Shanab and Ismail Haniya, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

He was accompanied by his minister of state for security, Mohammed Dahlan.

After the meeting, Haniya reiterated that Hamas would only agree to end its operations in Israel if the Israeli army stopped assassinating activists, halted its incursions into Palestinian territory and released Palestinian prisoners.

"When the Zionist enemy stops killing Palestinian civilians, ends its assassinations and its incursions and frees the prisoners, then Hamas could stop its military operations against (Israeli) civilians," he reiterated.

Haniya said the battle against the Israeli occupation army and Jewish settlers would continue.

Characterizing the meeting with Abbas as "important and positive," Haniya said he had reiterated Hamas' views on the "right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation."

Speaking to Aljazeera, he said that the meeting has nothing to do with an expected inter-Palestinian dialogue in Cairo, adding that it had been held at Abbas’ request.

"It came to enhance the bonds of Hamas with other Palestinian powers, including the new Palestinian government.

"It also boosts national unity and we will never give way to a Palestinian civil conflict as strongly desired by the Zionist enemy," he told the Qatar-based satellite channel.

For his part, Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr, who also attended the meeting, described it as a "serious point of departure for a national dialogue that will strengthen the ranks of Palestinians."

The meeting was the first between Abu Mazen as prime minister and Hamas.

Meanwhile, a leader of Islamic Jihad, Mohammed al-Hindi, said he had been called on to meet with Abbas, but that no date had been set.

He said his movement would be ready for a dialogue with the new premier in order to serve the interests of Palestinians.

Previous Egyptian-sponsored meetings between Palestinian factions aimed at reaching a one-year cease-fire, ended without results.

U.S. President George W. Bush is weighing stops in Qatar and Kuwait, and a possible Middle East peace summit in Egypt, after the June 1-3 G8 meeting in France, administration officials said Thursday.

Bush could decide to meet with Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon and Abbas at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where former U.S. president Bill Clinton in October 2000 arranged a Palestinian-Israeli truce that never took hold, they said.

The officials, who requested anonymity, all emphasized that such plans were far from final, citing ongoing assessments of the security situation as one of the key factors keeping the president's schedule in flux.

One official said a decision on whether Bush, who leaves May 30 for a swing through Europe, would stop in the Middle East could come as early as Sunday, when White House staff are supposed to return from the region.

The White House has confirmed that Bush is weighing a possible visit to U.S. troops in the Middle East on the way back from the summit of the world's seven wealthiest nations plus Russia -- the Group of Eight.

U.S. officials said that Bush could meet with Sharon and Abbas The Israeli Haaretz newspaper quoted Thursday Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom as saying that Bush will visit Israel at the start of June for talks with Sharon and Abbas.

On Thursday Bush met with Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, who is in Washington for parallel talks with administration officials.

Washington also prodded Israel Thursday to dismantle Jewish settlements, amid concern the roadmap will be dead in water.

"It is in Israel's interest to abide by the law, therefore the expectation would be that those outposts would be dismantled," AFP quoted U.S. ambassador Dan Kurtzer as saying.

The Bush administration is demanding Israel formally accept the ‘roadmap’ for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so that it does not appear to be trying to delay advancing the political process.

When the roadmap for peace was published three weeks ago there were expectations Israel would, if not accept the document officially, at least dismantle settlement outposts.

But Sharon, whose government includes several extreme-right pro-settler ministers, has not budged on the outposts and has even made a string of defiant statements on the issue.

The roadmap calls, among other things, for an immediate halt to Israeli settlement activity.

The international community considers all settlements illegal, and some of the outposts violate even Israeli law.

Since U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to the region for the release of the roadmap, the plan has had little impact on the ground and Washington is expected to launch a last-ditch campaign to revive it.

The road map, which was formally presented to the sides on April 30, calls for a three-phase process: calming the situation on the ground, establishing a Palestinian state in provisional borders, and reaching a permanent agreement by 2005.

Israel has accepted the phases in principle, but has presented many reservations about the specifics of the plan, starting with a demand the process begin with the Palestinians dropping their demand for the right of return of refugees.