OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 31 May 2003 — The Palestinians and Israel put a positive gloss yesterday on talks between their prime ministers, setting the tone for a three-way summit led by US President George W. Bush on promoting a peace road map.

Israel announced a series of goodwill gestures toward the Palestinians, including plans to release some prisoners, but failed to agree on terms for an Israeli troop pullback in the West Bank and Gaza Strip envisioned in the US-backed plan.

A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office said the meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas was held in a “positive and very good atmosphere”.

Abbas described the talks as “serious, candid and beneficial”, his press secretary said. “It was a positive meeting and with good results,” Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said.

But there appeared to be little chance of putting the peace proposal into motion before Bush meets the two leaders in a June 4 summit in Jordan, showcasing his decision to take a more hands-on approach to Middle East peacemaking after the Iraq war.

Bush left Washington yesterday for Europe, where he will attend a Group of Eight summit in Evian, France, before engaging in Middle East diplomacy with Arab leaders in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt and with Sharon and Abbas in Aqaba, Jordan. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said “all signals are go” for the trilateral summit.

Abbas said on Thursday he expected Hamas would agree to stop attacks on Israelis next week. Israel and the United States say a truce is not enough and want the “terrorist infrastructure” destroyed.

“We in Hamas are still discussing this issue and we are in need of more time to evaluate the developments on the ground in order to take the right decisions,” Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, a top Hamas official, said.

Dore Gold, an adviser to Sharon said the key question for Israel was, “will the Palestinians disarm and dismantle the organizations that have been killing Israeli civilians over the last two-and-a-half years?”

The specter of possible attacks by militants aimed at derailing the latest peace effort rose as the United States warned its citizens in Israel to avoid public buses and crowded venues that have in the past been targeted by bombers.

The advisory, which was posted on the US Embassy website in Tel Aviv, also warned of “credible” reports of possible plans to kidnap US citizens in the Gaza Strip.

In Gaza, a Palestinian was killed trying to infiltrate into Israel, the army said, calling him a “terrorist”. An explosion was heard after soldiers shot him, suggesting he may have been a bomber.

At the talks, Sharon renewed an offer to withdraw forces from the northern Gaza Strip and West Bank cities and turn the areas into a proving ground for a Palestinian crackdown on militants that could lead to more pullbacks. But Abbas was not biting.

Palestinians fear a crackdown could spark a civil war. They also say their security forces have been weakened by Israeli Army sweeps during a 32-month-old uprising for a state. Sharon’s office said he offered a series of gestures to Abbas, including the release of some Palestinian prisoners and 25,000 work permits in Israel for Palestinian laborers.

Israel Radio said 100 prisoners would go free. Amr said he expected the Israeli measures would be implemented within days.

In a sign of support in Israel for Palestinian aspirations for a state, whose creation the road map sets for 2005, an opinion poll in the Maariv daily yesterday showed 62 percent of Israelis wanted to end “occupation of the territories”.

Hamas has demanded as a condition to the cease-fire that all Palestinian prisoners be released.

Amr said the issue of Palestinian prisoners took up a large part of Thursday night’s meeting. The release promised by Israel will include high-profile activists Ahmed Jbara Abu Al-Sukkar and Tayseer Khaled.

Jailed for nearly 30 years, Al-Sukkar is the longest-serving Palestinian security prisoner. Khaled is a member of the PLO’s Executive Committee from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.