Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are to meet for their first summit since declaring a truce in February.

Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements this summer is expected to dominate the agenda on Tuesday afternoon.

The bigger issues of peace and statehood are likely to remain on hold until after Israel completes its evacuation, although Palestinians want assurances the withdrawal will be followed by further Israeli pullbacks in the West Bank.

The summit follows a weekend visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who urged both sides to step up cooperation to ensure a smooth pullout.

"In some ways from Sharon's perspective it's like punching a clock," Israeli political analyst Yossi Alpher said of the summit. "The Americans insisted this happen, so he's doing it. I don't think the reality will be very different after the meeting."

Sour atmosphere

The reality on Monday was a bloody one. In the third attack in three days by Islamic Jihad, armed men in the northern West Bank ambushed an Israeli minivan, killing one passenger and wounding another.

Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian and wounded another as they tried to scale a fence from Gaza into Israel, Palestinian hospital officials said.

While fighters argued the rising violence did not signal the collapse of a ceasefire agreed to in February, the bloodshed has soured the atmosphere.

On Monday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasir al-Qidwa condemned the violence, saying violations by either side "do not serve the Palestinian interest".

"We assert our commitment to the truce, and we hope that the most recent events will not affect the meeting between Abbas and Sharon," he said.

In the months since the February talks between the two leaders in Sharm el-Shaik in Egypt, Israel has been criticised for being slow to carry out commitments to release prisoners, hand over West Bank towns and remove roadblocks that severely restrict Palestinians' freedom of movement.

Strategies

Israel says progress depends on the Palestinian Authority first reining in extremists, and the nation's officials give Abbas low marks in that area.

Abbas has chosen persuasion over confrontation to sway his main rival, the Islamic resistance group Hamas - a strategy Israel denounces as naive and destined to fail.

"What we're seeing over the last few days is very troubling," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. "There's no doubt that [Hamas] is using this as a period to regroup, rearm and retrain."

Another Israeli official said Sharon had no intention of offering Abbas further confidence-building "gestures" at Tuesday's meeting unless Abbas took a harder line against fighters.

The official would not allow his name to be used because of the sensitivities surrounding the summit at Sharon's residence in Jerusalem.

Israeli shortcomings{mosgoogle right}

Palestinians say Israel has many shortcomings of its own to answer for, especially the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory and construction of a West Bank separation barrier that the Palestinians say usurps some of their land.

Palestinian leaders insist on their right to deal with Hamas in their own way.

"We know our conditions, we know our domestic realities and we know the best ways of achieving a cessation of violence," said lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi.

"Because if you start cracking down, imprisoning, shooting and killing, then you end up with a civil war," she added.

Sharon was expected to concentrate on security during the summit. Officials said he would ask Abbas to explain how the Palestinian Authority planned to prevent fighters from attacking Jewish settlers and soldiers as they evacuate Gaza.

The Palestinians have drawn up a wish list of their own for after the evacuation: Assurances Gazans will have access to the West Bank, the ability to build an airport and harbour for Gaza and control over Gaza's border with Egypt.

Israeli arrests

In a policy shift, Israel arrested more than 50 Islamic Jihad members in the West Bank overnight, military sources said.

Israeli policy since a February truce had been to arrest only those suspected of planning terror attacks.

Because Islamic Jihad in recent weeks has stepped up its attacks on Israeli targets, those arrested overnight were not only so-called ticking bombs, the sources said.

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