In a newspaper interview published Saturday, Abbas said Israel must also agree in principle to a fair land swap that would compensate the Palestinians for West Bank land absorbed by Jewish settlements in any peace deal.
The remarks were the clearest statement yet of what Abbas wants from Israel before he agrees to move to face-to-face negotiations that US President Barack Obama is pushing for.
Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell met Abbas Saturday in Ramallah. Mitchell, who met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, is mediating indirect peace talks that have been under way for more than two months.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on Mitchell's latest meetings or Abbas' remarks to the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad, which were also published by Palestinian media.
A leading figure in Abbas' Fatah party said Mitchell had not given adequate answers on the issues of borders or security for the Palestinians to agree to direct negotiations.
"Mitchell did not present ... any new Israeli answers," Mohammad Dahlan said in a statement, underlining Fatah's opposition to direct talks until that changes. Fatah rejected Mitchell's request for a move to direct negotiations, he added.
Mitchell described his meeting with Abbas as candid and productive. He said: "We are heartened by the discussions that we had here today and in the past several days."
The United States recognized "the difficulties and the complexities" in trying to realize the vision of comprehensive Middle East peace set out by Obama, Mitchell said.
"But we are determined to continue," he said, adding he would visit several other countries in the region. Obama, who met Netanyahu in Washington last week, has urged a resumption of direct talks by September.
Clarifying what he wants before a move to direct talks, Abbas told Al-Ghad that Israel should agree "in principle" to a third party taking on a security role in a future Palestinian state to be founded on land occupied by Israel in a 1967 war.
"Now what is required from Israel is for it to say that these ideas are, in principle, acceptable," he said.
"That means: Do they accept that the land is the 1967 borders and that there be, in the Palestinian land, a third party. If they agree to that, this is what we would consider the progress that we want and that would make us go to direct negotiations."
Elaborating on Abbas’ proposal, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the Palestinian Authority would like to see multinational forces in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip "to provide protection for the Palestinian people under and through the United Nations."
Israel wants to maintain a presence in the Jordan Valley along the West Bank's eastern border.
Abbas said Israel must also agree to the idea of a fair land swap, referring to a scenario where some Israeli land bordering the West Bank would be annexed to a future Palestinian state in compensation for major Jewish West Bank settlement blocs that would become part of Israel. "We said that the borders must be on the foundation of 1967 with agreement on an equitable swap," he added.
Palestinian officials have said they could accept such a swap but the area involved should not exceed 2 percent of the West Bank.
Netanyahu has promised "concrete steps" to encourage Abbas to move to direct talks. He has said he is willing to deal with the issue of settlements right away once direct talks begin.
