By Katherine Baldwin
LONDON (Reuters) - Empowering Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is key to breaking a deadlock in the Middle East peace process, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said in London on Monday, calling him a "weak" but "moderate" leader.
Livni said reaching a final-status agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, based on a secure Israel alongside a Palestinian homeland, looked impossible in the short term.
But strengthening the hand of Abbas -- of the moderate Fatah movement who is trying to patch together a coalition with the governing Hamas Islamists -- could help provide a way forward.
"I think that final-status agreement is not feasible, especially in the current situation but I think stagnation is not an option," Livni said in a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
"I believe we should find a way to promote a process in stages, to work with Abu Mazen (Abbas) as a moderate leader and to find a way to strengthen him and to promote a process."
Livni gave no further details and said the task was not easy. Any process was on hold until the outcome of talks between Abbas and Hamas on a coalition government was known, she said.
Palestinian officials said earlier on Monday those talks had been suspended due to disagreement over distributing ministries.
The United States and the European Union cut off direct aid to the Palestinian Authority in March after Hamas's election victory in January. Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, is listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.
The hope is a new government that unites "technocrats" and Fatah members might open the way for the sanctions to be lifted.
The United States has said it will only end sanctions if the unity government recognises Israel, renounces violence and accepts all existing peace deals with Israel.
Livni said the West's insistence on those three requirements helps to strengthen Abbas.
Hamas, however, which fully intends to remain part of any new government, has said it will never recognise Israel.
"The situation is complicated and we are facing extremists in power ... and the moderate leaders are the weak ones and Abu Mazen (Abbas) is a moderate leader but unfortunately he is maybe too weak," Livni said.
She said the success of Hamas in the Palestinian Authority would send the wrong message to extremists in the region.
She was also sceptical of suggestions by members of a bipartisan U.S. panel exploring policy options in Iraq and some Western leaders that Syria should be brought into dialogue to help stem violence in Iraq.
"The message right now should be if they want to be part of the international community they have to behave. They have to stop their support for the terrorist organisations," she said.
