Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    RAMALLAH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will discuss several issues including the release of prisoners during their meeting on Wednesday.

    Erekat told the Arabic service of Israel Radio that Abbas will meet on Wednesday with Olmert at the latter's house in Jerusalem to discuss the fate of the peace negotiations between the two sides.

    The meeting between the two leaders is the first after Olmert, facing corruption allegations, announced last week that he would not participate in his ruling Kadima party's primary scheduled for September to elect a new chief for the party.

    Erekat said that the two leaders would discuss the peace negotiations on the permanent status issues in addition to the settlements activities, removing Israeli roadblocks in the West Bank and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

    Earlier reports said that Abbas would ask Olmert to free top Palestinian leaders imprisoned in Israel, like Marwan Barghouti, Ahmed Sa'adat, and Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Aziz Dweik.

    Barghouti, who was arrested six years ago, is a senior Fatah leader serving a life sentence in an Israeli jail. Sa'adat is the chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

    Meanwhile, Qadoura Fares, a senior Fatah leader told Palestinian Radio "Voice of Palestine" that he doesn't expect positive results out of the meeting between Abbas and Olmert.

    "Tens of meetings were held in the past between them without any tangible results," Fares said, adding "what is happening now can't be called negotiation because it hasn't achieved any progress over the last two years."