Israeli and Palestinian officials meet in Sweden

Officials from Israel's moderate Labor Party and the ruling Palestinian Fatah faction met Wednesday in the Swedish capital to discuss the future of the Gaza strip after the Israeli pullout.

Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath and Israeli Cabinet Minister Haim Ramon led the two delegations in the second day of talks, which also included Sweden's governing Social Democrats, party spokesman Manuel Ferrer said.

The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party in Stockholm. A similar meeting between the three groups was held in January 2004.

The delegations were representing their political groups, rather than their governments.

Fatah is Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' party, while Labor is a junior partner in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition government, the AP reports.