Israeli, Palestinian leaders 'to meet within days'

The meeting is due to take place "within upcoming days," it quoted the official as saying, adding that no firm date has been set.

Abbas said Thursday that he hoped to meet with the Israeli leader before the end of the year. It would be the first meeting between the two men since an informal encounter in Jordan six months ago.

When questioned about the report by AFP, Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin said: "We have not yet fixed a date."

At a press conference in Ramallah, Abbas also said that "no date has been set" for the encounter.

The report comes days after visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for an initiative to jumpstart the Middle East peace process, which has been in a slumber for six years.

A senior Palestinian official has told AFP that the initiative would be worked out in coordination with the United States, and would be unveiled by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her expected visit to the region early next year.

Olmert last week paid a surprise visit to Jordan, whose King Abdullah II has warned of "disastrous" consequences if progress is not made in the peace process in the next six months.

Abbas is due to travel to Jordan Monday.

Meanwhile a civilian died overnight in Gaza in clashes between Hamas and a powerful local clan, but otherwise a truce aimed at halting violence between rival Palestinian factions held for a third day on Friday.

Armed with light weapons and rocket launchers, fighters from Hamas and the clan clashed just after midnight (2200 GMT Thursday) in eastern Gaza City near the home of Hamas's hardline foreign minister Mahmud Zahar.

A civilian, Ayman al-Girgawi, was mortally wounded in the battle that lasted for more than an hour, with long bursts of automatic fire breaking the calm of the night.

Two clan members were killed in clashes with Hamas earlier in the week.

Witnesses said that several Hamas supporters and at least five clan members were seized during the night in tit-for-tat abductions.

In the northern West Bank town of Nablus, six Palestinians were wounded, two of them seriously, in clashes between Hamas and the rival Fatah faction of president Mahmud Abbas, medics and witnesses said.

The fighting erupted when Fatah loyalists tried to prevent Hamas supporters from organizing a celebration to mark the movement's 19th anniversary.

In a separate incident, two children were lightly injured by an explosion in a militant training zone in central Gaza Strip.

Otherwise, a ceasefire between the rival factions largely held for a third straight day after four days of streetfighting in Gaza killed 14 people and wounded dozens earlier in the week.