AL QUDS, Jan 26: Israel and the Palestinians ended a nearly two-year freeze in high-level diplomatic talks on Wednesday and agreed to prepare next week for a first summit between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Mahmoud Abbas.

The talks aim to build on a lull in Palestinian militant attacks engineered by Abbas, who this month succeeded late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Officials said senior aides to the Israeli and Palestinian leaders would reconvene next week to hammer out details for the summit, the first since shortly after Palestinian militants launched an uprising in late 2000.

Steps to cement a de facto cease fire accelerated on the ground as Palestinian security men began deploying in south Gaza to stamp out lingering isolated violence by militants. Calm has prevailed in north Gaza since a similar deployment last week.

High-level diplomacy had been shelved since June 2003 when Abbas, then prime minister under Arafat, Sharon and US President George W. Bush met to launch a "road map" peace plan that was quickly sidelined by more fighting on the ground.

Israel boycotted Arafat in his final four years of power, branding him an "arch-terrorist", which he denied, but welcomed Abbas's Jan 9 election as his successor on a platform of ending violence to enable "road map" talks on Palestinian statehood.

"There will be a meeting between Sharon and Abbas in the near future. Senior aides on both sides will be putting together an agenda for the summit at the next talks," a confidant of Sharon's told Reuters. "Today's meeting was conducted in a good and constructive atmosphere," said Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat. -Reuters