(Updates with peace talks Feb 19, talks on Wednesday) By Mohammed Assadi MECCA, Saudi Arabia, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Hamas rivals prepared on Tuesday for talks on a unity government, with less than two weeks to go until a new bid to revive stalled peace negotiations with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Feb. 19, adding extra urgency to the bid by the Palestinian factions to end their bitter divisions. Abbas' Fatah movement and Islamist group Hamas, which won a parliamentary election last year, have been locked in a battle for power that has spiralled into violence and killed about 80 people since December. Previous efforts to stem the bloodshed and find common political ground have resulted in short-lived ceasefires and a threat by Abbas to call a new parliamentary election, a move Hamas has said would be tantamount to a coup. "The difference (now) is that both sides have the will ... Both sides are coming without preconditions and without deadlines," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said before the talks to be held in Mecca, home to Islam's holiest mosque. Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Jamal al-Shobaki said a deal was crucial. "They will not leave this holy place without an agreement, because things are catastrophic on the ground..." Officials said the talks would kick off on Wednesday morning near the Grand Mosque. Earlier, Abbas and the Hamas delegation headed by the group's Damascus-based leader Khaled Meshaal and the head of the Hamas-led government Ismail Haniyeh held separate meetings with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. King Abdullah, who called the reconciliation talks, issued a statement asking the Palestinian leaders to "respond to the voice of reason" and avoid a civil war that would put decades of gains in the struggle with Israel at risk, Saudi media said. SAUDI MEDIATION A key U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia is keen to see an end to violence among the Palestinians, fearing that it is contributing to radicalism in the region and offering non-Arab Shi'ite Muslim power Iran a chance to increase its influence. Iran has provided financial help to the Hamas-led government while Western countries have blocked aid until Hamas recognises Israel and its agreements with the Palestinian Authority, a self-rule body set up in 1993 on land occupied by Israel where Palestinians seek an independent state. Olmert, announcing the meeting with Abbas and Rice to American Jewish leaders, said he hoped Abbas would not forge a unity government with Hamas that stopped short of meeting Western demands to recognise Israel and renounce violence. Western diplomats in Riyadh say Saudi Arabia has sent signals to Hamas in recent months that it wants it to compromise. Saudi Arabia sponsored an Arab peace initiative in 2002 that offered Israel peace in return for a Palestinian state, and U.S. and Israeli officials have suggested in recent months the proposal could be a basis for peace. Nabil Amr, an Abbas advisor, said after Abbas met King Abdullah that Fatah would insist that a new unity government adhere to the Arab peace initiative. "We urged our brothers in Saudi Arabia to intervene to bridge the gaps to conclude an agreement," Amr said, referring to Saudi leaders. "The alternative is more deterioration and early elections." Fatah officials also say they will focus on a Hamas acceptance of the programme of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) -- another means of achieving an implicit recognition of Israel that could end the aid blockade. Haniyeh, speaking before leaving his base in the Gaza Strip for the talks, said Hamas would do all it could to reach an agreement over the formation of a unity government.
