JERUSALEM, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday in a new effort to narrow differences ahead of a U.S.-hosted conference on Palestinian statehood due later this year.
For several hours before the talks in Jerusalem, Israeli forces were engaged in some of the fiercest clashes in weeks in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian Islamists opposed to Abbas seized control in June, complicating his quest for statehood.
The lunchtime talks lasted about two hours. Also present were the lead negotiators from both sides -- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian former prime minister Ahmed Qurie.
None commented immediately afterwards.
Before the meeting another senior aide to Abbas, Saeb Erekat, condemned a plan decided by Israel on Thursday to start cutting power supplies to Gaza in response to rockets fired by militants from the enclave into Israel.
Erekat, who also attended the talks in Jerusalem, called on the international community to "intervene immediately to protect the Palestinian people and compel Israel to comply with international humanitarian law".
Abbas and Olmert were meeting over lunch to seek common ground before a U.S.-hosted conference in Annapolis aimed at agreeing on steps to establishing a Palestinian state.
While profoundly hostile to Hamas, Abbas's secular Fatah faction and the Palestinian Authority it controls in the West Bank have spoken out against Israeli action in Gaza, where troops killed six militants in raids on Friday.
Erekat, a senior negotiator with the Israelis, said the Israeli government's decision to start reducing power supplies to Gaza's 1.5 million people in response to militant rocket attacks was a "provocation" that would "double the suffering" of those living in the coastal enclave.
It was not immediately clear when the cuts will begin.
Speaking separately, Erekat said Abbas and Olmert would review the progress of negotiations at their meeting: "They will ... give their instructions on how to proceed to reach a joint document in preparation for the Annapolis meeting.
"We are seriously discussing all the core issues."