Guardian Unlimited Special reports Sharon and Abbas meet

I am Happy Today!!! This is the Report from the Guardian.
Silliest thing I heard on the Radio was that also the Hamas "Changed their Diskette".
Sharon and Abbas meet
AgenciesTuesday February 8, 2005
The Israeli and Palestinian leaders met today at a Middle East summit ahead of an expected joint announcement of a deal aimed at ending more than four years of bloody intifada.
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, met briefly this morning about two hours after the start of the summit hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort.
Mr Sharon and Mr Abbas smiled broadly as they leaned across a long white table to shake hands as they met for the first time since Mr Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat after his death in November.
Today was the first high-level direct negotiations between the two sides for more than four years. An invitation last night for both sides to meet separately with the US president, George Bush, at the White House this spring added extra momentum.
Mr Abbas was expected to declare an end to violence against Israelis, while Mr Sharon was expected to declare an end to Israeli military operations, contingent on a halt of Palestinian violence.
Ahead of the announcement, some details of the deal emerged from officials on both sides. Gideon Meir, a senior official in the Israeli foreign ministry revealed that the agreement, due to be announced later today, would be a verbal pledge to stop the violence - which has claimed more than 4,500 lives in the last four years - rather than a written document.
Mr Meir also revealed that Israel will accept that in the short term the Palestinian Authority will not actively crack down on militant groups, which Mr Abbas has persuaded to agree to a ceasfire for the last fortnight. However, in the long term, Mr Meir said a crackdown was needed because otherwise "the Palestinian terrorist organisations will have the ability to derail the peace process".
Speaking in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Zahar, a spokesman for the Palestinian militant group Hamas, struck a cautionary note, saying the group, which has been responsible for hundreds of attacks against Israelis over the past four years, would evaluate the summit before committing itself to halting its campaign of violence. He said: "We agreed before with Mahmoud Abbas that if he succeeds to achieve our national goals, he should come back to the Palestinian factions to discuss the issue, and after that we will decide our stand."
Speaking today, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said possible prisoner releases were also on the summit agenda, but any negotiations toward a final peace deal must wait until later. Mr Erekat said the agreement included the establishment of joint committees: one to determine criteria for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, and the other to oversee the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian cities on the West Bank.
Mr Meir said that after Mr Sharon's declaration of an end to military operations, the two sides would go back to operating as they did before the 2000 outbreak of fighting: In Palestinian-controlled areas, including most of Gaza and eventually most West Bank towns, the Israelis would co-ordinate with Palestinian security forces if they wanted to arrest someone.
Ranaan Gissin, one of Mr Sharon's senior advisers said: "Israel is willing to go very far and we're going to introduce today a package of confidence-building measures, incentives, to the Palestinians so that they could start this long journey on the road to peace."
The adviser added that "there's one thing that must be made very clear ... there will be no flexibility whatsoever, no compromise whatsoever on fighting terrorism".
Speaking in Rome, the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, today reiterated her optimism about the summit and said that there "seems to be a will in the Middle East because people want to live in a different kind of Middle East".
However despite the hopes surrounding the summit, in the hours before it began there was tension in southern Gaza. The Israeli military said Palestinians opened fire on an Israeli military vehicle moving along the security fence surrounding the Gush Katif bloc of Jewish settlements. No injuries or damage were reported.
Israeli troops also arrested two Hamas members near the West Bank town of Jenin, the army said, adding that this arrest, like others in the past 10 days, was carried out with the specific approval of the army chief, Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon. Israelis also briefly sealed off the West Bank town of Nablus, preventing Palestinians from leaving.