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Olmert Hopes to Meet with Abbas Soon

As the Yom Kippur holiday approached the end of last week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that he hopes to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in the near future, in what would be an effort to jump-start a Middle East peace process stalled largely due to the election in late January of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas to the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, the civil body responsible for Palestinian governmental affairs..

In an interview with Israel Radio, Prime Minister Olmert said "I am making a very great effort to have a dialogue with Abbas. I want to meet with him, we should start a process." Olmert said that he had already expressed his wishes to Mahmoud Abbas, also known by his "nomme de guerre" of Abu Mazen. "I told him that I would be happy to meet with him."

However, Olmert has cautioned not to expect too much from an initial meeting between the two, especially since the Palestinian Authority government is still controlled by a terrorist organization. Recent efforts by Abbas to forge a unity government and bring about a moderation in the Hamas stance - the group is committed to Israel`s destruction - failed. Olmert has said the Palestinians "must have one government. They must have one army. You cannot have a state if you don`t have a united people."