By Matt Spetalnick
JERUSALEM, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Aides to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met on Friday to lay the groundwork for next week's summit, their first since Israel's Gaza pullout spurred hopes for peacemaking.
Talks between the two leaders, postponed from Oct. 2 amid a spike in violence, are not expected to yield any breakthroughs but could refocus attention, at least temporarily, from internal challenges each has faced in recent weeks.
Israeli political sources said the summit was likely to be held on Tuesday in Jerusalem, but details were still being finalised by Sharon adviser Dov Weisglass and Palestinian chief negotatiator Saeb Erekat.
Friday's session produced no announcements, but Erekat said they had agreed to meet again soon, possibly on Sunday.
Mindful of Abbas's White House talks with U.S. President George W. Bush scheduled for Oct. 20, both sides are looking to improve their standing in Washington's eyes.
The United States hopes the Gaza pullout, which Israel completed last month after nearly four decades of occupation, will serve as a catalyst for renewed peace efforts.
"Nobody wants to see the summit fail," an Israeli diplomatic source said.
Abbas and Sharon are each expected to use the summit, their first since June, to demand that the other carry out commitments agreed at a ceasefire conference in February.
DEMANDS
Abbas will press Israel to free more Palestinian prisoners and hand over security control of more cities in the occupied West Bank, moves that could improve his standing with the Palestinian public.
He is locked in a government crisis over the Palestinian Authority's failure to end chaos and lawlessness in Gaza after Israel completed its pullout, and is also facing a growing Hamas challenge in January parliamentary elections.
Sharon, fresh from a bruising leadership battle in his rightist Likud party over opposition to the Gaza withdrawal, will push Abbas to do more to disarm militant groups dedicated to Israel's destruction.
Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday Israel was willing to make gestures to ease Palestinian hardships but would not release prisoners with "blood on their hands".
Israel's pullbacks from Gaza and a corner of the West Bank, completed on Sept. 12, marked the first removal of Jewish settlements from occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood.
A summit planned for earlier this month was deferred because of a lack of preparation and amid a surge of violence, with Israel answering militant rocket fire from Gaza with air strikes and arrest sweeps.
Sharon and Abbas held their first summit in February, soon after Abbas was elected to succeed late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and declared a ceasefire.
A second meeting, in Jerusalem in June, was overshadowed by bloodshed and recrimination over mutual failures to honour commitments under a U.S.-sponsored peace "road map". But Sharon and Abbas cemented an agreement to coordinate the Gaza pullout.
The Palestinians insist a final accord depends on Israel quitting all of the West Bank, where the vast majority of settlers live.
Sharon says Israel will never cede large West Bank settlement blocs, although he has hinted that dozens of smaller enclaves could be removed under a future peace agreement. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah)