Abbas: Back me or sack me

Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, struggling to win more power from Yasser Arafat and push a United States-backed plan for peace with Israel, has called on Palestinian lawmakers to back him or sack him.

Pledging his commitment to salvage the battered Middle East roadmap, Abbas wants new security powers he sees as vital to diplomacy but which the Palestinian President has been reluctant to give him, officials said.

Abbas, 68, who was appointed by Arafat in April under international pressure but lacking his rival's grass roots popularity, stopped short of asking for a vote of confidence.

But as Arafat supporters staged anti-Abbas protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, parliamentary speaker Ahmed Korei said 15 out of the 85 lawmakers had filed a petition asking for such a vote.

Abbas' removal by Parliament, which is dominated by Arafat loyalists, could doom the roadmap already under threat from fresh bloodshed and the cancellation of a ceasefire by Islamic militants.

Washington urged steadfastness. "There is really no alternative to the roadmap. Beyond the roadmap is the cliff," said US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

Throwing down a gauntlet to lawmakers, Abbas said power-sharing problems needed to be urgently addressed and he was ready to leave office if he did not get his way.

"Either provide the possibility of strong support for carrying out the mandate or you can take it back," he told the Palestinian Legislative Council while dozens of demonstrators stood outside chanting slogans against him.

In an apparent bid to defuse the crisis, lawmakers voted to hold a closed-door session later today to hear Abbas' account of his dispute with Arafat.

Speaking in even tones, Abbas blamed Israel for a lack of progress in peace moves and said the US had done too little to restrain the Israeli Army.

"We ... reiterate that we will continue our efforts to restore calm," he said.

The power struggle between Abbas and Arafat has centred on Abbas' demand, backed by the US, for control over the security forces who are crucial for reining in militants as required by the roadmap.

Arafat has retained authority over most security services, drawing US and Israeli accusations that he is trying to undermine his reform-minded Prime Minister.

But a leaflet distributed by Fatah's Ramallah branch accused Abbas' Administration of acting like a US and Israeli puppet and called for its removal.

He was equally assailed by Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said the Palestinian Prime Minister was "showing weakness and, perhaps, a survival instinct over statesmanly courage".

Underlining Abbas' woes, a militant group affiliated with the Fatah faction, in which both he and Arafat hold leadership roles, claimed responsibility with other groups for a West Bank ambush just before Parliament met.

An Israeli Army spokesman said Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a patrol carrying out arrests in the West Bank town of Jenin, killing a soldier.

In his speech Abbas attacked factional violence - which on August 19 claimed the lives of 21 people, including children in the Hamas Jerusalem suicide bomb - as counter-productive to the interests of the Palestinian people.

- REUTERS