Abbas, at World Economic Forum, says talks with Hamas would take no more than 2-3 weeks

Friday, January 26th 2007, 6:29 am

By: News On 6

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) _ Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday he expects that efforts to form a unity government with Hamas hard-liners are likely to go on for no more than two to three weeks, and indicated he would move to call early elections if those fail.

Abbas spoke ahead of a much-anticipated one-on-one with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

When asked how long he would pursue unity talks with Hamas, Abbas replied: ``I would say we're at a juncture ... I think it will take two weeks, maximum three weeks.''

He said that if no unity government were formed after that time, he would expect to move toward calling early elections.

Abbas's chief aide, Saeb Erekat, stressed that the Palestinian leader was not trying to set a hard deadline or add pressure to the negotiations with Hamas, which have snagged over the militant group's refusal to disavow its call for the destruction of Israel.

Abbas added that he was hopeful that a trilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice likely for next month would help push the process forward.

``I think the Americans are really serious this time,'' he said.

Abbas and Livni were meeting in the same Davos hotel where then Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat held round-the-clock peace talks in 1994.

Abbas and Livni came together on Thursday in an emotional panel discussion in which both pledged to work toward peace.

Livni told the forum that a lasting peace is the dream of her people and promised that a future Palestinian state is ``not an illusion... It's achievable.''

She made clear, however, that her government would not budge on its need for security and urged Abbas not to compromise with extremists, a reference to the militant Hamas government's refusal to disavow its call for Israel's destruction.

``I would like to negotiate, to speak, to meet, to talk,'' she said. On finding peace, she said: ``There is nothing I want more ... this is part of our dream, this is part of our goal.''

Abbas, for his part, said he was confident that the peace process could be put back on track.

``We are creating this momentum ... to put the train on the track and push it after that,'' Abbas told The Associated Press.

In a separate meeting, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country stands to profit if a new global trade treaty is reached in the long-stalled Doha trade talks, made an impassioned plea to the world's richest countries to open up their agricultural markets.

``If we wish to send a signal to the poorest countries on the planet that they will have an opportunity in the 21st century ... these countries should assume responsibility for developing a pact so we can reach agreement in the Doha round,'' he said.

Silva, a regular guest at the Forum, said he has talked to President Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and others about the necessity of completing the five-year-old negotiations.

Top trade negotiators from the U.S., the European Union, Brazil and two dozen other countries will discuss the World Trade Organization talks on the Forum's sidelines Saturday.