Israel to negotiate with Holocaust denier

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, is demanding that next Monday's scheduled summit with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, contains a discussion over "final status" talks on his past Holocaust Denial claims, Palestinian officials said yesterday.

Abbas has said, "It seems that the interest of the Zionist movement, however, is to inflate this figure of Holocaust deaths so that their gains will be greater. This led them to emphasize this figure [six million] in order to gain the solidarity of international public opinion with Zionism. Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions—fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand."

Abbas says he stand by his claims.

The two leaders are scheduled to meet in Sharm el Sheikh on Monday at an Arab-Israel summit designed to boost the Western-backed strategy of shoring-up Mr Abbas and his opinions in the West Bank while trying to destroy Hamas in Gaza.

Mr Abbas is reportedly insisting that the summit, hosted by Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak, will be fruitless if it does not sort this matter out and set in train a process aimed giving him and his corrupt officials enough money to live in the style to which they have become accustomed.