Palestinian leaders go to Mecca for talks

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Palestinian factions on the brink of civil war gathered Tuesday in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, in a last-ditch effort to end their bloody conflict. The Saudi-led push is key to any future peace talks with Israel -- and to Arab efforts to blunt Iran's growing power. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Khaled Mashaal, leader of the militant Hamas movement, flew to the Saudi city of Jiddah before heading to Mecca to meet their host, King Abdullah, ahead of the start of talks today. The talks are open-ended, a reflection of Saudi Arabia's determination to keep them going until the Palestinians reach a deal for power-sharing in a new coalition government. The king's mediation and the holding of the talks in Mecca underline the Saudi pressure on the sides to overcome their differences.

The Saudis are pointedly convening the talks in a Mecca guest palace overlooking the Kaaba, the cube-shaped shrine toward which all Muslims turn when they pray.

Four days of gunbattles between Fatah and Hamas fighters killed more than 30 people and wounded over 200 others until a cease-fire took hold Sunday.

Even as Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas left the Gaza Strip Tuesday for the talks, Hamas and Fatah security officials fired at each other for 10 minutes at the Gaza-Egypt crossing terminal. No injuries were reported.

"Nobody wants the battling to continue," Haniyeh told reporters. "The only beneficiary is Israel."

In an interview with the Lebanese paper Al-Akhbar, Abbas warned that failure in Mecca "would mean the deterioration of the internal situation and igniting civil war."

Beyond ending the intra-Palestinian bloodshed, a deal on power-sharing is vital for any resumption of the peace process. Israel has refused any talks since Hamas formed a government following January 2006 elections, and the West imposed a financial blockade on the Palestinian government because of Hamas's refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Abbas, a moderate who was elected separately, is hoping for an agreement on a coalition government in which Hamas will give some degree of recognition to previous peace agreements with Israel to allow a resumption of talks and an end to the embargo.

The Mecca gathering is also a test of U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom, which normally prefers behind-the-scenes diplomacy, has taken an assertive new role in trying to resolve the Palestinian conflict, as well as two other Mideast conflicts that threaten to erupt into full-fledged civil wars: Iraq and Lebanon.

It has done so in part because it fears that Shiite-Sunni tensions fueled by the turmoil in Iraq and Lebanon could explode, destabilizing the region -- and threatening the kingdom itself, which is mainly Sunni but has a significant Shiite minority.

Saudi Arabia also aims to stem the influence of mainly Shiite, Persian Iran, its longtime rival, which has a hand in all three crises. Iran has funneled millions of dollars to Hamas, giving it an unprecedented influence in the Israeli-Arab conflict. As a sign of its concern, Saudi Arabia has even opened contacts with Iran to cooperate in easing tensions in Iraq and Lebanon.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia sees reviving the Israeli-Arab peace process as vital to calming the crises across the Mideast.

King Abdullah underlined the need for a deal as he met with Abbas and Mashaal separately in Mecca.

"What's going on in the land of Palestine serves only the enemies of the Islamic nation," he told Abbas, according to the Saudi News Agency. "If it continues, it will rob the Palestinians of the fruits of their long struggle."

Speaking to Mashaal and Haniyeh, Abdullah warned: "If the dispute between Palestinian brothers goes on, it will bleed away their energy and end all that they have struggled to achieve."

Abdullah also received a message from President Bush ahead of the talks, delivered by Homeland Security and Counterterrorism adviser Frances Townsend, the news agency reported, without giving details.

State-guided Saudi newspapers urged the Palestinians to reconcile and observe the truce that took hold Sunday. "If the Palestinians cannot reach radical solutions at the Mecca meeting, then I believe we have to wait 50 more years for them to, perhaps, get over the (power) complex," commentator Hani Wafa wrote in a column titled "The Last Chance" in Al-Riyadh newspaper.

The Palestinians have been struggling for months over a power-sharing deal, and street battles between gunmen of the two parties have erupted with increasing frequency in Gaza. The differences focused on the program of the proposed coalition and who would control the security forces. In recent months, Egypt, Syria and Qatar have all tried and failed to end the power struggle.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy of Hamas leader Mashaal, was cautious as he and Mashaal left Damascus for the talks. "The disagreements ... have become narrower," Marzouk told The Associated Press, "but we don't know whether an agreement will be reached or not."

Ostensibly, the gaps are small -- in the case of the program only a single word. Abbas, a moderate who was elected separately in 2005, has insisted Hamas promise to "commit" to previous agreements, including interim peace deals with Israel. Hamas is only willing to say it "respects" such agreements.

-----

AP writer Sarah El Deeb in Gaza and Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.