Israel, Palestinians consider pullbacks

"The road map does not represent the ambitions of the Palestinian people, and the enemy is using it as a basis for ending the uprising."

Ismail Haniyah, member of terrorist group Hamas

Israelis Palestinians edged toward a security deal in efforts to save a US-backed "road map" to peace yesterday, but there were no signs that Islamic militants were embracing the plan after a week of violence.

Israeli Palestinian security officials met late into the night yesterday to discuss possible Israeli troop withdrawals from northern Gaza and the West Bank city of Bethlehem in exchange for a Palestinian pledge to rein in militants there.

Officials said a deal was shaping up for the partial Israeli withdrawal after Saturday's talks between Israeli Major-General Amos Gilad and Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan. Officials from both sides had been expected to thrash out the details in Sunday night meetings.

Egypt the US were trying to help. Egyptian security officials on Sunday sought to persuade militants to resume talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on ending attacks on Israelis.

US George W. Bush's envoy, veteran diplomat John Wolf, met Israeli domestic security chief Avi Dichter and Dov Weisglass, an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, on Saturday.

Hamas said they remained opposed to the road map but would study the ideas presented by Egyptian officials.

"The road map does not represent the ambitions of the Palestinian people, and the enemy is using it as a basis for ending the uprising," Ismail Haniyah, of Hamas told reporters in Gaza after the group met with Egyptian mediators on Sunday.

"Hamas emphasized the right of our people to self-defense and to resist the occupation until they gain their full rights," he added.

Egypt's were expected to hold further talks with Hamas and other militant groups in order to preserve Abbas's authority among Palestinians seething from Israeli air strikes that has killed more than 20 Palestinians over the past week.

Bush, the main patron of the road map, set the tone of his diplomacy on Sunday when he blasted Hamas, which has spearheaded a revolt for independence which erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in September 2000.

Hamas castigated Abbas for accepting the road map, which calls for an end to the revolt as part of reciprocal steps leading to an independent Palestinian state by 2005.

"The free world and those who love freedom and peace must deal harshly with Hamas and the killers," Bush said in response to a question on whether Israeli retaliations were justified.

A leading US Republican lawmaker said on Sunday that US forces may have to help "root out terrorism" in the Middle East, including taking aim at Hamas.

The Jewish state is firmly opposed to such intervention.

Bush's were unlikely to help Abbas, who launched the road map with Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a June 4 summit in Jordan. Then, Abbas pledged to demilitarize the revolt -- but he made it clear he was aiming for a truce rather than a crackdown as demanded by Israel.

For his part, Sharon undertook to dismantle some Jewish settler outposts erected without government authorization in the West Bank. But the evacuations were overtaken by last week's violence -- which claimed more than 50 lives -- and on Sunday a monitoring group reported five new outposts had been put up.