Palestinians back premier post, cut Arafat's power

8.45am

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian parliament has ratified the new post of prime minister, drawing US praise coupled with disappointment over President Yasser Arafat's retention of key powers.

It was not immediately clear if the move towards reform, demanded by US-led international peace brokers, would meet President George W. Bush's condition for unveiling a peace "road map" -- a new Palestinian premier with "real authority".

The 69-1 vote eroded Arafat's political dominance nearly 30 months after the start of a Palestinian uprising for statehood and stripped him of powers to approve cabinet members.

But the bill, which Palestinian officials said Arafat later signed into law, left him in charge of security and peacemaking in the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell called the creation of the post "a positive step" but said the United States would have preferred to see even greater authority vested in the prime minister.

"We have been disappointed in President Arafat's leadership and (have) said so clearly," Powell said.

"The greatest disappointment has been in the area of security, ending the violence, and so there is a disappointment that that portfolio seems to remain wholly in the hands of Chairman Arafat," he added.

"Having said that we do have a prime minister emerging, with authority given to him by the legislature. We'll see how that authority is used."

The new prime minister, expected to be leading moderate Mahmoud Abbas, will take over the day-to-day running of the Palestinian Authority with a mandate to purge corruption, help rein in militants and foster a return to peacemaking.

Political commentators have speculated that Bush's conditional promise to present the long-delayed peace proposal envisioning a Palestinian state by 2005 was an attempt to defuse Arab and European anger over his plan for war on Iraq.

Arafat had outwitted rivals in the past but dissent in his Fatah faction kindled by diplomatic isolation and Israel's reoccupation of West Bank cities in June after Palestinian suicide bombings pushed him into concessions.

Israel blames Arafat for anti-Israeli violence, an accusation he denies. It wants him sidelined before peace talks can resume.

While the Palestinians pursued reforms, the Israeli army caught up with a top wanted Hamas commander, Ali Alan, and another senior member of the militant Islamic group, Nasser Assida, killing them in separate shootouts in the West Bank.

One Israeli soldier was killed.

Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, has criticised militant violence as counterproductive to the goal of independence and said he would take the prime minister's job only if given significant power.

Arafat was expected to call on Abbas to select a cabinet within two weeks.

Abu Mazen, an architect of interim peace deals a decade ago, enjoys considerable respect in Israel, but officials in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government are sceptical about whether he will have the muscle to rein in militants.

Militants have rejected the new premier's post as what they term a US and Israeli plot to suppress the uprising and vowed no respite to a campaign of suicide bombings and ambushes.

At least 1946 Palestinians and 727 Israelis have been killed since the uprising erupted in September 2000.

- REUTERS