By Mohammed Assadi

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The Palestinian president said on Wednesday a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip must cover the same amount of land as Israel seized in these territories 40 years ago.

President Mahmoud Abbas also raised the possibility of amending the pre-1967 lines -- as long as Palestinians ended up in control of territory equal to the amount of land Israeli forces captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

"All we want is a state on the 1967 borders, meaning the size of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which is 6,205 square kilometres (2,396 square miles)," Abbas told Palestine Television.

It was the first time a Palestinian leader has detailed publicly the size of a state whose borders would be agreed in a final peace deal with Israel, which has not disclosed how much land it would be prepared to relinquish.

The U.S. government has backed the idea of a small territorial exchange between Israel and a future Palestine so that Palestinians would be compensated for settlement blocs that would remain under Israeli control in any peace deal.

"As for border modification, this is mentioned in Resolution 242," Abbas said, referring to a 1967 U.N. Security Council document that serves as a basis for Israeli-Palestinian land-for-peace deals. "It will be an equal modification."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas, whose Fatah faction holds sway only in the West Bank following the takeover of the Gaza Strip in June by Hamas Islamists, are to participate in a U.S.-led conference next month on Palestinian statehood.

Asked about Abbas's comments, Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said: "The prime minister has stated in the past that any two-state solution will entail the return of territory ... a lot of territory.

"But we have never been more specific on that and we are not yet at that stage."

TERRITORIAL CLAIMS

All Israeli governments since the 1967 conflict have ruled out a complete pullback to pre-war boundaries, citing security concerns and the Jewish state's claim to all of Jerusalem as its capital, including the annexed eastern part of the holy city.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem has not won international recognition.

Abbas and Olmert agreed last week a joint document negotiating teams are preparing for the conference would be the launching pad for final-status talks.

Negotiations on core issues such as the borders of a Palestinian state and the future of Jerusalem and millions of Palestinian refugees broke down in 2001 amid surging violence.

Abbas said in the interview he wanted the Palestinian people to vote in a referendum on any peace deal reached with Israel.

It is unclear how that would be done with Hamas, which refuses to recognise the Jewish state, in control in the Gaza Strip.

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