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Israel will soon restore security contacts - Abbas

Posted on: Monday, 17 October 2005, 11:00 CDT

PARIS (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday he was confident that Israel would quickly resume security contacts with the Palestinians, suspended after gunmen killed three Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Israel severed security contacts after the flare-up in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, when Israel also killed a senior Islamic militant who opened fire on Israeli troops.

"As for relations and contacts with the Israelis, we are completely certain they are going to resume very rapidly because there are many things we can tackle with the Israelis and which must be discussed," Abbas said before talks in Paris with French President Jacques Chirac.

"We are sorry about what happened yesterday. These events undermine the truce and calm we had respected ... We know certain people want to undermine us and carry out acts such as these which harm us," he said.

The latest violence raised new doubts about an already shaky eight-month-old ceasefire and over whether Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of military rule would spur renewed peacemaking.

Abbas was holding talks in Paris before meeting U.S. President George W. Bush later this week. An aide said the talks with Bush would focus on how to revive an international peace plan known as the "road map."

Source: REUTERS

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