Rice in talks to advance road map

JERUSALEM - United States presidential adviser Condoleezza Rice began talks with Israeli leaders yesterday to advance a Middle East peace plan after Palestinian militants agreed in principle to a truce and Israel agreed to pull back forces.

However, Palestinian militants last night put off declaring a ceasefire with Israel because of factional disputes that led to difficulties wording the agreement, officials in the mainstream Fatah movement said.

US President George W. Bush designated Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was in the region this month, as key representatives to help get both sides behind the "road map" plan, which has been battered by an upsurge in violence.

Bush launched the road map at a June 4 summit in Jordan with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Rice, who met Abbas in the West Bank on Saturday, went into talks with the Israeli side yesterday, starting with Dov Weisglass, chief of staff to Sharon. She was to see Sharon and his defence minister soon after.

The road map envisions confidence-building moves by both sides and the creation by 2005 of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside Israel, which occupied both territories in the 1967 Middle East war.

Rice's visit puts the weight of US pressure on Palestinian authorities to enforce a truce by militants, and on Israelis to withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem.

In the past few days, Palestinian militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas said they had agreed in principle to a conditional, three-month halt to attacks.

Speaking just before Rice arrived in the region, Islamic Jihad leader Mohammad al-Hindi said on Saturday he expected the truce to be announced formally within 24 hours. Hamas said earlier it had decided to suspend attacks.

But the groups, behind scores of bombings against Israelis in a 33-month-old revolt against Israeli occupation, have said they will only stick to the truce if Israel ends track-and-kill raids against militants and meets other terms.

Israel said it did not negotiate the truce and is only bound to agreements with the Abbas government. Israel agreed in principle with the Palestinian Authority on Friday to withdraw troops.

Political sources said Palestinian factions negotiated through the night on a text for the truce but got bogged down in a row between Islamists and the Fatah movement over references to the road map.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad wanted none because they are formally opposed to Israel's existence and a negotiated peace, whereas Fatah sought a clause requiring Israel to meet its road map obligations.

After the talks with Rice, Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said that she said the US Administration welcomed the truce. "It should be backed by the Americans or it stands fragile."

A senior Israeli political source has said soldiers would start withdrawing today from the Gaza Strip and open its major roads to ease Palestinian movement in return for Palestinian forces ensuring militants did not attack Israeli targets.

Details of the move were to be discussed last night and had to include assurances that Palestinian security forces would fill the security gap, Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir said.