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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat Wednesday chaired the first meeting of the new cabinet at his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
The new cabinet that Arafat formed won an overwhelming majority voting by the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), or Parliament,on Tuesday.
An official statement issued after the cabinet meeting said the government "reviewed all political and internal issues, especially the implementation of the program of the new government."
One of the issues discussed is "the preparations for the presidential and parliamentarian elections on the time that was approved and agreed upon (on Jan. 20, 2003)," the statement said.
It said the new government insists to continue the legal, economical, security and financial reforms.
Arafat also gave his own instructions that "it is necessary to activate all Palestinian popular and official institutions as well as ministries to finalize all its plans of reforms."
"The finalizing of all the special security plans -- unifying all security apparatuses and rebuilding its structure in cooperation with Arab and foreign bodies -- is on the priority of the new cabinet," said the statement.
Politically, the new cabinet reiterated its opposition to all Israeli measures carried out in Jerusalem and all attempts to make changes in the territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
"According to the international resolutions, the borders of 1967are the only border lines that separate the state of Israel from the state of Palestine," stressed the statement.
The cabinet, meanwhile, called on the Palestinian leadership to seriously work on the US road map peace plan on the Middle East region.
(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2002)
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