Hamas calls on Abbas to reject direct talks

Hamas on Tuesday warned Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas not to re-launch direct peace talks with Israel, which it said "would only serve the Zionist occupation."

"We warn (Abbas) of the consequences of returning to negotiations, either with Arab cover or under pressure from America, because this will deepen the divide and put our cause on the brink of collapse," senior Hamas leader Salah al-Bardawil said in a statement.

Abbas was to meet with Arab League ministers on Thursday to discuss whether to bow to months of U.S. pressure to re-launch face-to-face talks with Israel last suspended after the December 2008 outbreak of the Gaza war.

He has been engaged in U.S.-mediated indirect talks with Israel since May but has repeatedly said he will not upgrade the negotiations without a freeze on Jewish settlements and a clear reference for the talks.

Hamas, an Islamist movement committed to the destruction of Israel, has opposed peace talks since they began in the early 1990s and has long accused Abbas's secular Fatah movement of giving in to Israeli demands.

"Abbas's talk of a clearly defined reference as a condition for restarting direct talks with the enemy confirms that Fatah has committed a huge error by negotiating for the last 20 years without one," Bardawil said.

It "bears responsibility for everything that has happened in the Palestinian territories, the holy sites and the cause during this period of negotiations and concessions," he added.

The United States and the European Union have pressed Abbas to go into direct talks, while Fatah has urged him to stick to his demand that there first be progress on the issues of borders and security in the indirect negotiations.

Netanyahu in Amman

Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II on the Middle East peace process during a previously unannounced visit to Amman, the palace said.

The visit comes as Israel and the Palestinians are at loggerheads over direct peace talks and ahead of an Arab League meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who is currently in the Jordanian capital.

"The king and the prime minister discussed means to achieve progress in efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in line with a two-state solution," the palace said in a statement.

"They also discussed ways to create the right environment for launching direct and serious peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel."

The two leaders, whose countries have a 1994 peace treaty, last met on May 14, 2009, when Netanyahu also made a surprise visit to the Jordanian capital, six weeks after taking office.