Abbas to press Olmert to end Gaza blockade

By Wafa Amr

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will ask Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to end a blockade on Gaza and accept his offer to control Gaza's border crossings, Palestinian officials said on Saturday.

The two leaders are expected to meet on Sunday to discuss how to push forward with peace talks after Hamas breached Gaza's border with Egypt in defiance of a blockade that Israel says is meant to counter rocket fire from Gaza.

Senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters the top issue on Sunday would be "ending the siege on Gaza" and removing hundreds of checkpoints in the occupied West Bank that he said amounted to a siege there too.

Abbas condemned Israel's blockade on Gaza -- run by the Hamas Islamists since they drove his forces out eight months ago -- as collective punishment.

"When you deprive the people of water, electricity, and humanitarian goods, even air, the people must explode, and they live in a besieged strip," Abbas said in a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israel and the Palestinians launched their most serious peace talks in seven years at a U.S.-sponsored conference in November with the goal of signing a peace treaty in 2008.

But Hamas's success in blowing up Gaza's border to led thousands of Palestinians stock up on supplies has further undermined a U.S.-backed campaign to sideline the Islamists and strengthen Abbas. Hamas opposes peace moves with Israel.