Sharon's office said he spoke with Abbas for 10 minutes and welcomed his landslide election victory on a platform of non-violence.

"He wished him success and the two agreed they would talk again soon," it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told Palestinian radio "Voice of Palestine" that the meeting will be held in two weeks but no specific date or agreements had been slated yet.

The Palestinians had conducted the election in democratic manners and chosen their new leader in spite of being under occupation, Shaath said. "The Palestinians are committed to democracy and building the institutions and the state of Palestine."

He expressed hope that the results of the meeting will achieve calmness and ceasefire as the resumption of peace talks will be based on the roadmap peace plan "and through ending the Israeli armed attacks against the Palestinian territories."

Israeli government sources said arrangements were being made for a meeting between Abbas and Sharon in the coming days.

Coordination over the withdrawal was said to be one of the first issues to be discussed by the two leaders during their meeting.

For the US side, Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday talked with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres and ForeignMinister Silvan Shalom, and was later to speak with Abbas to encourage progress toward peace, the State Department said.

"We will continue, ourselves, to encourage progress between thetwo parties," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"We will continue to encourage progress by the Palestinians incontrolling the security situation in the territories, and we'll continue to look for every opportunity to work with the parties tomove forward," he added.

Abbas, 69, also known as Abu Mazen, won Sunday's Palestinian presidential election with 62.32 percent of the votes, according to official results announced Monday.

Greece, China, Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand have congratulated Abbas on his victory in recent days.

Abbas will name current Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei as the new prime minister, Palestinian sources said Tuesday.

They said Abbas and Qurei held a meeting Monday evening, duringwhich they agreed to reshuffle the current cabinet and bring in some newcomers.

Among the new faces, there will be resigned Presidential Secretary General Tayeb Abed al-Rahim, former Interior Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan, former Information Minister Nabil Amr and former Chief of National Security Nasser Youssef.

Amr will be named as the information minister, while Dahlan is expected to be the cabinet secretary general, according to the sources.