The summit meeting, focused on an international-backed "road map" for Middle East peace, is also the highest-level Israeli-Palestinian meeting since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000.

An Israeli official said Sharon will resume talks with Abbas after his visit to the United States.

Abbas reached Sharon's office for talks after travelling by motorcade from the Gaza Strip, where he held a cabinet meeting hours ago.

Palestinian Minister of Security Mohammad Dahlan and the head of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) joined in the talks.

Sharon's Chief of Staff Dov Weisglass, military secretary Yoav Gallant and diplomatic adviser Shalom Turgeman were also present at the meeting.

According to local media, Abbas demanded that Sharon officially accept the international-backed road map, halt the "targeted killings" of Palestinian militants and the demolition of homes, and lift the closure of the Palestinian territories.

Sharon demanded that the Palestinians crack down on "terrorists" and end incitement against Israel in the Palestinian media.

A meeting between Dhalan and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz is expected to take place in the near future.

But some Palestinian officials said that Palestinians are pessimistic about the outcome of the meeting.

Expectations for a breakthrough were very low, particularly following the ongoing Israeli operation in Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip, they said, adding that Abbas is reluctant to meet with Sharon at this stage and is doing so under American pressure.

Over 100 members of the Israeli Meretz and Peace Now movement demonstrated outside Sharon's office Saturday evening, calling for an end to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and for the implementation of the "road map."

Meanwhile, several hundred Jewish settlers also gathered outside the building, to condemn the meeting, the radio said. They demanded that in light of the suicide bombing in Hebron, Sharon should not meet with Abbas.

The meeting was expected to make it easier for Sharon to convince his interlocutors in Washington that he is doing what he can to ease Palestinian humanitarian conditions and begin a diplomatic process, said Israeli reporter Herb Keinon.

Sharon is scheduled to leave for Washington on Sunday noon, and return Thursday. He will meet President George W. Bush on Tuesday, the eighth time Sharon will have met Bush since taking office in February 2001.

Bush is expected to press Sharon to accept the so-called road map for Middle East peace and to increase humanitarian gestures toward the Palestinians.

However, the summit meeting was overshadowed by violence. An Israeli couple were killed in a suicide attack near the West Bank town of Hebron just hours before the meeting.

Several Israelis were hurt and two Palestinian gunmen killed late Saturday night when a gunfire broke out in the West Bank settlement of Sha'arei Tikva, on the Green Line border.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2003)