Israel and the Palestinians ended a nearly two-year freeze in high-level diplomatic talksWednesday and agreed to prepare next week for a first summit between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Mahmoud Abbas.

The talks aim to build on a lull in Palestinian militant attacks engineered by Abbas, who this month succeeded late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Officials said senior aides to the Israeli and Palestinian leaders would reconvene next week to hammer out details for the summit, the first since shortly after Palestinian militants launched an uprising in late 2000.

Steps to cement a de facto ceasefire accelerated on the ground as Palestinian security men began deploying in south Gaza to stamp out lingering isolated violence by militants. Calm has prevailed in north Gaza since a similar deployment last week.

High-level diplomacy had been shelved since June 2003 when Abbas, then prime minister under Arafat, Sharon and US President George W. Bush met to launch a "roadmap" peace plan that was quickly sidelined by more fighting on the ground.

"There will be a meeting between Sharon and Abbas in the near future. Senior aides on both sides will be putting together an agenda for the summit at the next talks," a confidant of Sharon's said.

"Today's meeting was conducted in a good and constructive atmosphere," said Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat. "We decided to meet next week to continue preparations for the summit. No date has been set yet for the summit."

Sharon restored diplomatic contacts with the Palestinians in recognition of Abbas' success over the past week in stilling militant violence in the Gaza Strip in a series of talks with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah armed faction chiefs.

Meanwhile, Israel has stopped targeting Palestinian militants for death, according to Israeli security officials, fulfilling a key Palestinian demand for a truce to end four years of violence.

Israeli leaders yesterday stopped short of confirming the decision explicitly but strongly indicated there was a change in policy.

The security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel has informed the Palestinians of their decision.

It came after generals from the two sides met on Tuesday to plan deployment of Palestinian police in central and southern Gaza, to prevent militants from attacking Israelis.

Since Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas took office earlier this month, he has been negotiating with militant groups about a truce declaration.

In return, the militants are demanding that Israel stop its military operations and halt its killing of militant leaders.

The groups agreed to a one-month halt in attacks to test Israel's response.

Vice-Premier Shimon Peres suggested yesterday that Israel was stopping the killings in reaction to Palestinian security efforts to rein in militants.

"If there won't be reasons for targeted killings, there won't be targeted killings," Peres told Israel Radio. "What do we need targeted killings for now if they have really deployed?"

Vice-Premier Ehud Olmert said that Israel had decided to refrain from some military operations.

On Tuesday, the Damascus-based leader of the violent Islamic Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, laid down conditions for a truce in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

"If the Zionist enemy (Israel) abides by certain conditions, such as releasing all prisoners and detainees and halting all acts of killing, assassination and aggression against our people inside and outside (the Palestinian territories), the general national position of all Palestinian factions has become that they are ready to positively deal with the idea of a temporary truce," Mashaal said.

(China Daily January 27, 2005)