The topic was repeatedly raised at meetings in 2008 between former Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei, who was chief negotiator at the time, and then Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who suggested some Arab Israelis should be moved into a new Palestinian state.

The discussions are contained in over 1,600 files detailing over a decade of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that Al Jazeera television began leaking on Sunday night.

The documents have already showed the Palestinians offered huge concessions to Israel on the issues of refugees and Jerusalem, but new files show they stood firm on the transfer of Arab Israelis.

"The basis for the creation of the state of Israel is that it was created for the Jewish people. Your state will be the answer to all Palestinians including refugees," Livni told Qorei in January 2008.

Qorei firmly rejected the suggestion.

Gaza's Hamas rulers on Tuesday accused their Palestinian rivals of treason after the leaked documents showed they were ready to accept a return of only a symbolic number of refugees to Israel.

Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza, urged "masses in the Arab countries and refugees everywhere to voice their words because this case is more serious than anyone could imagine."

Traditionally, the Palestinians have said all Palestinian refugees and their descendants, or several million people in all, have the "right of return" to properties lost when the state of Israel was created in 1948.

Documents presented by Al Jazeera late Monday quoted Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as telling US official David Hale that the Palestinians offered Israel the return of a "symbolic number" of refugees.

In a separate transcript of a meeting between Abbas and Palestinian officials, the Palestinian president is quoted as saying it would be "illogical" to demand the return of 5 million refugees to Israel.