Yasser Arafat convened his new cabinet for the first time on Thursday, promising to set the date for Palestinian elections and calling for an end to violence.
The Palestinian leader opened the meeting of his reshuffled cabinet in Ramallah after Israeli forces ended a three-day siege of the West Bank city which prevented the session from taking place earlier in the week.
"The municipal elections will be held as soon as possible and legislative and presidential elections will be held in either December or January," Arafat said at the start of the session on Thursday evening.
"In the next few days we will issue an official order to set the date for these elections."
Arafat pared down his cabinet to 21 ministers on Sunday and has said he will streamline his security services as part of a reform of his Palestinian Authority called for by Palestinian lawmakers, the United States and Israel. The cabinet will serve as government until elections are held.
In Washington, President Bush vowed to lay out a vision which would lead to Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in two states.
"We must build the institutions necessary for the evolution of a Palestinian state which can live peacefully in the region and provide hope for the suffering Palestinian people," Bush told reporters on Thursday.
Bush and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal earlier in the day held what the White House described as a "warm meeting" in which they "exchanged a variety of ideas about how to move forward."
Bush is preparing to unveil, probably next week, a framework for negotiations aimed at ending Palestinian attacks against Israeli targets, rebuilding Palestinian institutions to establish a Palestinian state, and reviving political talks.
There have been indications Bush will offer principles within which the most difficult issues could be negotiated, without proposing solutions.
The idea is to take Bush's principles to a Middle East ministerial conference later this summer in the hope of getting the parties to reach agreement on the path ahead.
Saudi Arabia in April presented Bush with new proposals for ending the violence in the Middle East that U.S. officials at the time called a basis for discussion.
The Saudi plan called for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas, deployment of international peacekeepers, reconstruction of damaged Palestinian areas, renunciation of violence, talks on a political settlement and an end to Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas.
In exchange, Arab countries would recognize Israel and agree to normalize relations with the Jewish state.
Israeli media reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres had renewed contacts with senior Palestinian officials on the subject of an international summit. Israel has demanded an end to violence and a reform of the Palestinian Authority before peace talks can resume.
PALESTINIAN CABINET MEETS AFTER ARMY PULLOUT
Television footage of the Palestinian cabinet meeting showed ministers arriving at the sandbagged headquarters of the Palestinian leader after Israeli troops pulled out of Ramallah on Wednesday to positions encircling the city.
Arafat's headquarters was badly damaged in a five-week Israeli army siege lifted on May 1. The army said it had arrested dozens of suspected militants blamed for suicide bombings against Israelis in the latest siege.
During the cabinet session, Arafat reiterated his commitment to peacemaking, despite more than 20 months of bloodshed in a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
"We should give the path of the peace of the brave...the chance it deserves for the security and the peace of the Israeli people and the Palestinian people and the rest of the region's people," Arafat said.
The cabinet pledged in a statement issued after the meeting to "work for the sake of real and effective peace...to achieve the goals of the Palestinian people in freedom."
Israeli cabinet minister Danny Naveh brushed off the significance of the cabinet changes and promise of elections.
"Under Arafat the Palestinian Authority has become a terror-endorsing Authority and this is why we need to see a real change," he told Reuters Television.
"Any change of government or any so-called elections to a new parliament under Arafat and his gunmen would be meaningless."
REBUILDING MINISTRIES
Arafat said the next step was to reconstruct ministries and government agencies to enforce accountability and transparency.
But in a sign of internal disagreement over a separation of powers within the Palestinian Authority, Arafat rejected a call by lawmakers before the cabinet meeting to present his 21 ministers to the legislative council for a vote of confidence.
Israeli troops on Thursday raided the town of Toubas in the northern West Bank, continuing a campaign of almost daily raids in Palestinian-ruled areas. They withdrew after blowing up three security buildings and arresting nine Palestinians, security sources said.
At least 1,395 Palestinians and 509 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation began in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.
(China Daily June 14, 2002)
