Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told reporters that the meeting, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum conference here, had gone well and was a "preparation and an opening, particularly on the economic side."
The meeting came just before Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's first official trip to Washington, where he is expected to face political pressure not to isolate Abbas, whom U.S. officials are working to bolster in his ongoing power struggle with the Hamas-dominated Palestinian government.
Underscoring Abbas' difficult position, Palestinian police in Gaza foiled what they said was another apparent assassination plot against a top official allied with Abbas.
Police said they had discovered a 150-pound bomb planted on the road that Rashid Abu Shbak, head of the Palestinian Authority's security services, takes from his home in south Gaza City to work. The bomb was discovered just before Shbak left his house.
A day earlier, Abbas' intelligence chief was seriously injured by an explosion in an elevator shaft at his headquarters in Gaza.
The apparent assassination attempts followed gun battles between Abbas' Fatah organization and Hamas, raising concerns that the factional fighting could spin out of control.
Fatah's statement called the attacks a "clear conspiracy" against the party, though members stopped short of overtly blaming Hamas.
Nabil Shaath, a Fatah legislator and former Palestinian information minister, told reporters in Egypt that it was too early to let accusations fly.
"I've seen too many detective movies in my life," he said. "When it looks so much like Hamas, you have to doubt that it is Hamas."
Israeli leaders are skeptical of Abbas' ability to lead peace talks. Just two months ago, Livni dismissed him as irrelevant. Yesterday, Olmert suggested there was little point in working with Abbas because his once-dominant Fatah party had lost power in January elections.
