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AMMAN, Wednesday (Reuters) Jordan confirmed it will host a three-way summit between U.S. President George W. Bush and Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

"Jordan will host in Aqaba in the presence of King Abdullah a summit that will bring together President Bush with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon," the state news agency Petra quoted Information Minister Mohammad Adwan as saying.

A separate U.S.-Arab summit would take place in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik where Bush would meet a number of Arab leaders, among them the Jordanian monarch and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Adwan said consultations were under way on the dates for the two summits, which Egyptian, U.S. and Israeli officials said were expected next week but had not been officially announced.

Meanwhile Abbas said that he was ready to test Israel's commitment to implementing a U.S.-backed Middle East road map after the Israeli cabinet approved the proposal.

Speaking in his first interview with an Israeli newspaper since he assumed office last month, Abbas also urged Israel to stop pursuing and killing Palestinian militants and other punitive measures against Palestinians.

"I don't want to judge Sharon by what he says or by what's said about him," Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, told Haaretz daily, according to excerpts of the interview published on its Web site.

"I know him inside and out. I'll believe him only when he implements the road map. The implementation is the only test as far as I'm concerned," he added.

U.S. President George W. Bush has pressured the right-wing Sharon and his cabinet to accept the road map, drafted by the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia to end 32 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and move towards peace through the establishment of an independent Palestinian state by 2005.

Abbas, who assumed office in April as part of Palestinian reforms demanded by Israel and the United States, is expected to meet Sharon this week before a three-way summit in Jordan with Bush to discuss the road map.

Israel is demanding that Abbas crack down on Palestinian militants, who have launched repeated suicide bombings against Israelis in what they say are reprisals for Israel's killings of Palestinians.

"If we go back to the cycle of reaction and action, that will make it difficult for us to achieve the goal," Abbas told Haaretz.

"It is impossible to achieve 100 percent success in a brief period. It is important that the Palestinians see change on the ground, like the cessation of the assassinations and demolitions (of houses) and prisoners being freed."

Abbas also defended Palestinian President Yasser Arafat against U.S. and Israeli attempts to isolate him, and called on the Jewish state to lift restrictions on his movement imposed more than two years ago.

"It is very difficult for me to explain to our citizenry that we have a new government, conducting open negotiations with Israel, and our president is isolated in his Ramallah headquarters," he added.

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