JERUSALEM, Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began talks on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a meeting complicated by a Palestinian unity government deal.

The three convened in a Jerusalem hotel for what Rice, in an apparent bid to lower expectations, had said would be "informal discussions" rather than peace negotiations.

Olmert said on Sunday that Israel and the United States agreed to boycott the planned coalition between Abbas's Fatah faction and the Islamist Hamas group if it did not recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace accords.

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