A summit meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been postponed after Israel contacted the Palestinian side, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said yesterday.

The summit had been scheduled for Sunday but a surge in violence in recent days had cast doubt on the meeting.

"The Israeli side got in touch and this meeting was postponed. We don't want the meeting just for the sake of meeting. On the contrary, we want a meeting that is well prepared," Erekat told reporters in Cairo.

"We want to come out with a successful summit, so this summit will be held when the preparation is ready," he said, after talks between Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Abbas came to Egypt to seek Mubarak's intervention after days of violence between Israeli forces and Palestinian groups. Egypt has contacts both with Israel and with the Palestinian militants who have fired rockets into Israel.

Israel had already cancelled a meeting to prepare for the Sunday summit after rockets from Gaza landed in Israel.

Israel launched missile strikes that knocked out power to thousands of Palestinians in Gaza yesterday as it pressed an offensive against cross-border rocket fire two weeks after its withdrawal from the territory.

No rocket launchings were reported during the day after a pledge by militant groups to halt attacks condemned by the Palestinian Authority as harming the national interest.

(China Daily September 29, 2005)