By Wafa Amr JERUSALEM, July 6 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas travelled to Syria on Sunday looking for insight on his Islamist rivals' attitudes to reconciliation -- but he had no plans to meet the Hamas leader in person while in Damascus. Palestinian officials said Abbas's two-day visit to Damascus, where Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal lives in exile, would focus on discussions of Arab efforts to help end the rift between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah movement following the Islamists' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip a year ago. Abbas would discuss the issues with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but, senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters, "President Abbas will not meet Meshaal in Damascus or anywhere else before Hamas commits to end its coup in Gaza." Palestinian officials said the gaps between Hamas on the one hand and Fatah and other factions of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) on the other were still wide, three weeks after Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority, made a public call for a national dialogue to end Hamas's control over Gaza. A senior member of the PLO committee preparing for national dialogue, Saleh Rafat, said Abbas was trying to explore Hamas's positions through Arab mediators before Egypt can call for a direct dialogue to end the rift between the West Bank and Gaza. "President Abbas has discussed with the Arabs, and will discuss with Assad, whether Hamas is ready to hand over Palestinian Authority institutions to an Arab League committee and Arab security experts, whether it would implement the Yemeni initiative by forming a new government of technocrats and hold early elections," Rafat said. Abbas called for dialogue to implement a Yemeni initiative for reconciliation that calls on Hamas to end what Abbas refers to as a "coup" in Gaza, and form a new government that would prepare for early presidential and parliamentary elections. Hamas has said it wants a dialogue with Fatah only and insists on talks without any preconditions. Arab diplomats said Egypt, which last month helped broker a truce between Hamas and Israel, was ready to host a dialogue between Palestinian factions but will only do so after receiving assurances that Hamas agreed to implement the Yemeni initiative. Senior Hamas official Khalil Abu Laila said Hamas's position was "to hold talks with Fatah on the basis of no preconditions and to discuss all the issues at the negotiating table". Abbas dismissed a Hamas-led government last June following its seizure of the Gaza Strip and appointed a Western-backed government in the West Bank. Hamas, backed by Syria and Iran, has consolidated its power in Gaza despite sanctions imposed by Israel and its Western allies and much of the Arab world. Abbas has lately held talks with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa and other Arab leaders to try to convince Hamas to soften its position and end the rift that has undermined Abbas's negotiating position with Israel in statehood talks. (Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Palestinians sit on the road in front of Israeli troops during a protest just outside the West Bank village of Ni'lin calling for an end to the blockade of the village ...
