Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers to meet

The Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers will meet by the end of the week in the highest-level encounter in three years, officials have confirmed.

The meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his newly appointed Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas - and with Sharon's planned talks with US President George W Bush next week in Washington.

Sharon and Abbas will meet on Friday, said Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

The last similar summit was in 2000, when then-premier Ehud Barak met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for peace talks that collapsed into violence.

Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said arrangements for the meeting were still being finalised.

"We want this meeting to end with tangible political results," he said.

Palestinians have accepted the "road map," a three-stage blueprint which begins with an end to violence, Israeli army pullbacks and a halt in settlement building in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

It then allows for a Palestinian state with provisional borders - perhaps by the end of the year - and hopes to resolve tough issues like borders, Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem in the last stage.

Israel has presented 15 objections to the plan.

The main one is that Israel wants its concessions to follow a Palestinian dismantling of terror groups, while the Palestinians say steps must proceed in parallel, as the road map suggests.

The Palestinians said they had expected more from the Powell visit. "Mr Powell came without a positive Israeli response (to the road map) ... and that is very unfortunate," said Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat.

Sharon is to discuss the Israeli points with Bush next week in Washington. Powell said on Sunday that those talks will include the question of Israeli settlements, but Israeli officials insisted they do not expect a confrontation.