US envoy to meet Abbas on unity govt

A top US diplomat is to hold emergency talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders over the next two days regarding plans for a Palestinian unity government, the Israeli newspaper Maariv said yesterday.
A spokesman for the US consulate in Jerusalem confirmed that Deputy Secretary of State William Burns would meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today.
He was unable to provide any other details about the agenda for the talks.
Maariv said the visit was an "urgent" mission ahead of a meeting at the end of this week between Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal that will finalise plans for the implementation a reconciliation deal.
The terms of the implementation have already been hammered out over a series of secret meetings in Cairo, according to Palestinian officials, but will be announced during the Abbas-Meshaal summit.
The reconciliation deal signed in May calls for the formation of an interim government of independents that will pave the way for legislative and presidential elections by May 2012.