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Israeli, Palestinian prime ministers upbeat about `road map' peace talks

Israel and the Palestinians put a positive gloss yesterday on talks between their prime ministers, setting the tone for a three-way summit led by US President George W. Bush on promoting a peace "road map."

Israel announced a series of goodwill gestures toward the Palestinians, including plans to release some prisoners, but failed to agree on terms for an Israeli troop pullback in the West Bank and Gaza Strip envisioned in the US-backed plan.

A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said the two-and-half-hour meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday evening with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas had been conducted in a "positive and very good atmosphere."

Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, described the talks as "serious, candid and beneficial," his press secretary said.

"It was a positive meeting and with good results," Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said.

But there appeared to be little chance of putting the peace proposal into motion before Bush meets the two leaders in a summit in Jordan on Wednesday, showcasing his decision to take a more hands-on approach to Middle East peacemaking after the Iraq war.

"The personal atmosphere between ... Sharon and the Palestinian prime minister, Abu Mazen, was actually quite good, but the name of the game is follow-through," Dore Gold, an adviser to the Israeli leader, said.

"The question is, will the Palestinians disarm and dismantle the terrorist organizations that have been killing Israeli civilians over the last two-and-a-half years?" he said.

Abbas said on Thursday he expected Hamas militants would agree to stop attacks on Israelis next week. Israel and the US say a truce is not enough and want a "terrorist infrastructure" destroyed.

"We in Hamas are still discussing this issue and we are in need of more time to evaluate the developments on the ground in order to take the right decisions," Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, a top Hamas official, said.

In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian was killed trying to infiltrate into Israel, the army said, calling him a "terrorist." An explosion was heard after soldiers shot him, suggesting he may have been a suicide bomber.

In a sign of support in Israel for Palestinian aspirations for a state, whose creation the road map sets for 2005, an opinion poll in the Maariv daily yesterday showed 62 percent of Israelis wanted to end "occupation of the territories."

Sharon, a long-time champion of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, shocked Palestinians and Israelis alike this week by describing Israel's effective hold on 3.5 million Palestinians as "occupation."

At the talks, Sharon renewed an offer to withdraw forces from the northern Gaza Strip and West Bank cities and turn the areas into a proving ground for a crackdown on militants that could lead to more pullbacks, Sharon's office said.

But Abbas was not biting.

Palestinians prefer a truce to a crackdown which they fear could spark a civil war. They also say their security forces have been weakened by Israeli army sweeps during a 32-month-old uprising for a state.

Sharon's office said he offered a series of gestures to Abbas, including 25,000 work permits in Israel for Palestinian laborers and a review of which Palestinian prisoners might be released. Israel Radio said 100 would be freed.
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