TEL AVIV, June 6 (RIA Novosti) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have been invited to a meeting of the quartet of Middle East peace mediators on June 25, local media said.
The meeting could provide an alternative to talks between the leaders that were initially scheduled for Thursday, but have been postponed.
A meeting in the West Bank town of Jericho, which was to have focused on ceasefire proposals amid the latest wave of violence between Israel and Palestinian militants, was put off at the Palestinians' request without clear reasons, according to Israeli government spokesman David Baker.
Al Arabiya news channel quoted Ziad Abu Amr, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) foreign minister, as saying the leaders had received an invitation from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - the group of mediators formed to find ways of resolving the protracted crisis in the region.
Abbas had pledged to present a draft ceasefire agreement, coordinated with the main Palestinian militant groups, at the meeting in Jericho, which was to be the first between the leaders to be held in the West Bank.
According to media reports, the peace incentive by the PNA leader, who is seeking a truce for both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, was not supported by Palestinian militants, while Abbas's office said additional consultations were needed to specify the agenda of the talks.
Abbas aide Saeb Erekat attributed the meeting's failure to differences over tax revenues, which Israel has withheld from the PNA after radical Islamist group Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States, won parliamentary elections in January 2006.
Israel authorities are ready to transfer about half of an estimated $700 million to the PNA, claiming the remainder has been frozen by court order.
The Israeli-Palestinian November 26 ceasefire was broken in mid-May, when Palestinian militants launched rocket attacks on southern Israel, killing two people. More than 50 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli retaliatory air attacks on Gaza.
Rocket attacks against Israel came amid reduced turf fighting between Hamas and pro-presidential Fatah groups on Palestinian lands. The Islamic factions declared a ceasefire May 19 after a week of violence in which 50 Palestinians died.
The Hamas-led government was replaced in March by a national unity government, established with Fatah, to stop the bloodshed.
