Abbas made the optimistic forecast, only days ahead of a peace summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and U.S. President George W. Bush, despite the Islamic resistance group Hamas pledge to continue its attacks as long as the Israeli aggressions continue.

Two summits slated for next week are part of efforts to end 32 months of the Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation with the so-called roadmap for peace, which calls for an end to violence, freeze of Israeli settlements and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

The first will be hosted Tuesday by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and will bring together Bush and a number of Arab leaders.

On Wednesday, King Abdullah II will host Bush, Abbas and Sharon in the Jordanian coastal resort of Aqaba.

"After the two summits ... we will continue the negotiations with the Palestinian organizations and within two or three weeks maximum, we will succeed in having a universal agreement which we can count on," Abbas said in an interview with Israeli public television Friday night, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"I am an optimist: we will achieve an agreement on a halt in the violence," he said.

Abbas also said the Palestinian security services would be ready in about the same time to take responsibility for certain areas of the Gaza Strip and West Bank where Israeli troops have re-occupied.

"We're talking about 'Gaza First,' and certain cities in the West Bank. We will take responsibility for the security (in these areas) in two to three weeks," he said.

Abbas had met with Sharon late Thursday in occupied Jerusalem for the second time in two weeks to discuss kick-starting the roadmap.

In line with the plan's call for Israeli troops to withdraw to positions they held before the Intifada, Sharon agreed to a phased handover of security control in Gaza and West Bank towns.

In return, Sharon has demanded Abbas move to halt the “violence”, including what the Israeli Premier termed "dismantling terror organizations, confiscation of illegal weapons and the ending of incitement."

Israel tries to link Palestinian groups resisting the occupation to “terrorism”, whereas the Palestinians accuse Israel of “state terrorism”.

In his interview, Abbas said: "I believe that both parties understand that the only way to peace is negotiation. The other means don't help."

He added that he believed the Palestinian territories needed "one sole authority and one sole legal armed force."

The comment was probably aimed at Hamas, which warned Friday it would only stop its attacks if Israel halts all aggressions against the Palestinians.

"Stopping our martyr operations and attacks against (Israeli) civilians cannot occur without the enemy paying the price and stopping its aggression in all its forms."

Palestinians "have not made all these sacrifices to obtain the liberation of one or two prisoners and the right for some workers to be allowed" to go back to Israel. What our people want is the release of every prisoner, the restitution of our land and holy places and a halt to the (Israeli) aggression," he added.

He was referring to a Sharon promise that 25,000 Palestinian workers would be allowed to resume working in Israel and a pledge to free two important Palestinian prisoners -- Ahmed Jbarra Abu Sukkar, who has spent nearly 30 years behind bars, and Taysir Khaled, a leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

A Palestinian boy prepares to throw a stone at an Israeli tank in one of the streets of Jenin

The situation on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territories, however, was as tense and violent as it is.

The Israeli army mobile and permanent checkpoints Saturday continued harassing Palestinian citizens, according to the Egyptian TV correspondent there.

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian near the West Bank city of Jenin after allegedly discovering him and a comrade attempting to plant a 30-kilogram (66 pound) explosive charge on a path used by Israel patrols, according to AFP.

And an Israeli man was wounded overnight by Palestinian gunfire as he drove his car in the northern West Bank, an Israeli military source said.

The man, whose identity was not given, was hit as he drove his car, the source said, without providing further details.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army abducted a “wanted” Palestinian in Dura, in the southern West Bank, another at Beit Rima, near Ramallah, and a third in Azaria, near Bethlehem.