Palestinian leader Abbas to visit Turkey next week- official

Abbas and Turkish President Abdullah Gul will discuss "all aspects of the Palestinian problem, including efforts to secure unity among Palestinian groups," an official from the Turkish presidents office told AFP.

Turkey assumed an active diplomatic role during the war in the Gaza Strip, engaging in a shuttle diplomacy between exiled leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Egyptian officials who sought a ceasefire deal.

Ankara has repeatedly stressed that securing unity between Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Abbas’s West Bank-based Fatah movement is critical for the success of the Palestinian cause for statehood.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has vehemently criticized Israel’s devastating Gaza offensive, stormed out of a heated debate on the issue with Israel's President Shimon Peres at an international forum in the Swiss town of Davos on Thursday.