Abbas to press Olmert to end Gaza blockade

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will ask Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to end a blockade in Gaza and accept his offer to control Gaza's border crossings, Palestinian officials said on Saturday.

The two leaders are expected to meet on Sunday to discuss how to push forward with peace talks after Hamas breached Gaza's border with Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade.

Israel and the Palestinians launched their most serious peace talks in seven years at a U.S.-sponsored conference in November with the goal of signing a peace treaty in 2008.

Thousands of Palestinians poured into Egypt this week to stock up on food and fuel in short supply after Israel closed its borders with the Hamas-controlled territory in what it said was a bid to end cross-border rocket fire into southern Israel.

The fall of the border wall punched a new hole in a U.S.-backed campaign to curb the clout of Hamas and strengthen Abbas, nearly eight months after the Islamist group routed his Fatah forces in Gaza. Hamas opposes the peace moves with the Jewish state.

Israel, which occupied Gaza in 1967, pulled out its troops and settlers in 2005 but still controls the strip's northern and eastern borders, airspace and coastal waters.

Abbas will also ask Olmert to lift immediately travel restrictions in the occupied West Bank, officials said. Israel has so far balked at removing its hundred of checkpoints that crisscross the West Bank.

"The number one issue on the agenda of Sunday's talks between President Abbas and Olmert will be ending the siege imposed on Gaza, and the need to end the siege in the West Bank as well, as there are hundreds of checkpoints there," senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters.

The newly launched talks have dealt with so-called final- status issues such as borders and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, but the two leaders remain at odds over the scope of the deal.

Israeli officials said Olmert was seeking a deal that would outline a "framework" for a future Palestinian state with implementation delayed until the Palestinians can ensure Israel's security.

Abbas wants a final peace treaty enabling him to declare a state by the end of the year.

Israel said it had tightened its Gaza blockade last week to counter cross-border rocket fire, but after an international outcry, fuel and aid supplies were partly restored.

Abbas aides said Hamas's breach of the border gives Israel justification to divide the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip from the West Bank, where Abbas holds sway. Abbas wants both territories for a future Palestinian state.

Abbas will also press Olmert to allow his security forces to take control of Gaza's border crossings. Though Hamas has said it will prevent the move unless it has a say in any future agremeents regarding the border crossings. (Editing by Richard Balmforth)