30 January 2005	Sunday	19 Zilhaj 1425

AL QUDS, Jan 29: Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in two weeks, a Palestinian official said On Saturday, as the two sides prepared to discuss the transfer of security control in parts of the West Bank , fuelling real optimism about progress towards peace.

The power transfer is due to take place following a first meeting Mr Abbas and Mr Sharon, the latest in a series of peace gestures between Israeli and the Palestinians amid a lull in violence.

"This meeting should take place a fortnight from now," said prime minister Ahmed Qorei's top aide Hassan Abu Libdeh.

Mr Abbas met Sharon when he was prime minister in 2003 but the proposed summit would be the first between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in over four years.

Backed by his top allies in Washington, Sharon refused to have anything to do with Mr Abbas's late predecessor, Mr Yasser Arafat.

But in a policy shift, Israel has called off offensive operations in the Gaza Strip after 2,000 Palestinian troops were deployed in the south and centre of the territory with orders to halt rocket attacks.

Mr Abbas, on his first foreign trip as leader, briefed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday on efforts to secure a formal truce from militant groups to cement a recent informal lull in anti-Israeli attacks.

His order that Palestinian forces stop militant attacks across Gaza led even Sharon to hail a possible "historic breakthrough" in relations.

Later in the day, former Palestinian security minister Mohammed Dahlan was due to hold talks in Tel Aviv with Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz on West Bank security, Palestinian sources said.

On the agenda was a possible halt to Israeli military operations in the West Bank and the release of some of the 8,000 Palestinians jailed in Israel, amid reports that officials are ready to free a first tranche of 900.

Sharon is also now prepared to coordinate with the Palestinians his plan to pull all troops and 8,000 settlers out of the Gaza Strip this year.

The United States sent special envoy William Burns to prepare the ground for a visit by new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the end of next week.

Burns also detected "the best chance in years" for the peace process.

Since the 1991 launch of the peace process, the most taxing questions have remained on hold: permanent borders, Jewish settlements, Palestinian refugees, water resources and the fate of Al Quds.

In Cairo, Abbas met Mubarak on his efforts for a definitive demilitarization of the Palestinian uprising that erupted in September 2000 against the 38-year Israeli occupation.

Cairo has declared its readiness to send an additional 700 border guards to tighten security on its border with Gaza, in the wake of the Israeli pullout.

PALESTINIAN KILLED: The Israeli army shot and killed a Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, medics said.

It was the fourth killing in the past week in the West Bank and Gaza where violence has largely abated since Mahmoud Abbas was elected Palestinian president earlier this month.

Witnesses said the 35-year-old man, who was said by local residents to be mentally retarded, approached the Israel-Gaza border fence near the town of Khan Younis and was shot by troops on the Israeli side of the border.

Armed Palestinian security forces have taken control of areas within the Gaza Strip in the past week. -AFP/Reuters