The Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in Jerusalem today for the first time since their historic Sharm el-Sheikh summit four months ago, but made little headway on resolving their differences against the backdrop of increasing violence.

Mahmood Abbas, the Palestinian President, held more than two hours of talks with Ariel Sharon at the Israeli Prime Minister’s residence, although they failed to reach agreement to move forward with the fragile peace process just 55 days ahead of the planned Gaza pullout.

The atmosphere was frosty - in contrast to the warm smiles and handshakes at February’s summit - in the wake of the killings in recent days of two Israelis and the arrests of 52 Palestinians allegedly linked to Islamic Jihad in a sweep early today.

In a statement Mr Sharon read at the outset of the meeting, the Israeli Prime Minister said he was willing to move swiftly on a host of issues, including the handing of control of two West Bank towns to Palestinians, the freeing of long-serving prisoners and the easing of passage for Palestinians leaving Gaza.

But Mr Sharon said that as long as the Palestinian Authority failed to take the necessary steps to halt the deterioration in the security and honour commitments to disarm militants there could be no movement or progress towards the US-backed "road map" for peace.

Raanan Gissin, a senior adviser to Mr Sharon, said that the leaders had settled the demolition of Jewish homes in Gaza once the 9,000 settlers leave and the building of a seaport for the enclave. But the airport would not be allowed to reopen for the time being because of Israeli security fears.

"All these things are dependent on the Palestinians going beyond what they’ve done now," said Mr Gissin.

"What they’ve done is step in the right direction, but it’s insufficient to move forward. The disengagement will take place according to plan, either unilaterally or in co-ordination with the Palestinians."

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