Abbas vows arms crackdown before Palestinian vote

1.00pm

GAZA - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has vowed a crackdown on armed groups operating in Palestinian areas in order to smooth the way to a January 9 presidential election for a successor to Yasser Arafat.

Abbas also urged Israel to halt "aggressive" military action in the West Bank and Gaza to help him restore order before the vote in his first media interview since taking over as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation after the death of Arafat.

"Steps will be taken to end the public display or show of arms," Abbas told Reuters, saying action would be taken before the election. "We have to move on to a new era.

"We will act firmly against anyone who violates the law so that we can make the citizens feel secure."

However, in promising to tackle factional lawlessness, Abbas left unclear whether security forces would curb militants preparing attacks on Israelis - a key demand of a US-backed peace plan envisaging a Palestinian state.

US diplomats set to meet Abbas next week hope the election will install a moderate president mandated to talk peace with Israel. But without a crackdown on militants, Israel will be loath to ease army blockades or halt raids disruptive to a vote.

Abbas said on Wednesday that Palestinians faced a crucial test in preventing an internal slide into chaos after Arafat, as rival factions jockey for power.

"This period is a test for the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people to show they are capable of establishing the independent Palestinian state," he said.

Talks between Abbas and militant factions have so far produced no agreement for suspending suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis in a four-year-old Palestinian uprising.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas' nom de guerre) warned faction leaders that if there is no calm, Israel might use this as a pretext to hinder elections with military action," one official said. "They all signalled opposition to a truce unless Israel reciprocates."

However, Abbas, who narrowly escaped injury in a gunfight on Sunday between his bodyguards and militants, won a verbal pledge at talks with leaders of Fatah armed groups as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihad earlier on Wednesday to work to restore internal order, political sources said.

"I did not ask for a truce (towards Israel) directly. We call for calm within the framework of reorganising the internal situation," said Abbas, an opponent of violence who has been denounced by some militants as a stooge of Israel.

Abbas is likely to be the main Fatah movement's candidate to succeed Arafat as president on a platform of renewed talks.

Under US pressure to help the temporary collective leadership that has replaced Arafat gain control on the ground, Israel has indicated it is now limiting military strikes to targeting "ticking bombs" - militants on the way to an attack.

However, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rules out any ceasefire or renewal of peace moves unless Palestinian leaders bottle up the militants. Militants agreed to suspend attacks when Abbas was prime minister in 2003. But the truce crumbled in weeks. A US-backed "road map" towards Palestinian statehood has been stalled since.

Faction sources said Hamas and Islamic Jihad also told Abbas they would probably not field candidates for president, sticking to a policy of boycotting Palestinian self-rule institutions that might deal with Israel, which both groups want to destroy.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to visit Israel and the West Bank on Monday, lending weight to President George W Bush's vow to help create a Palestinian state in Israel-occupied areas during his second four-year term.

- REUTERS