Arafat: ceasefire offer a lie

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has backed up his call for an immediate ceasefire in eight months of fighting with the Palestinians by ordering Israel's Army to cease all pre-emptive strikes against them.

A senior aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat termed the truce offer "a lie" and said yesterday that a Palestinian "status of self-defence" would continue as long as Israel occupied land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

United States President George W. Bush welcomed Sharon's statement, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters in Washington.

Fleischer added the US "would welcome a similar statement" from the Palestinians.

Sharon called for a ceasefire at a news conference in which he rejected a total freeze of Jewish settlement activity, part of a plan by a US-led committee for ending Israeli-Palestinian violence.

"I propose to our neighbours that we work together to reach an immediate ceasefire and hope the Palestinians will answer the call positively," Sharon said.

The aide, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, countered: "This is a manoeuvre by Sharon's Government aimed at alleviating international pressure on Israel, which was condemned for excessive use of force."

Israeli Army spokesman Ron Kitrey said that, under the new guidelines, soldiers would "protect themselves and prevent terror attacks," but would not initiate any fighting with Palestinians.

He said they would require Government approval to enter areas under Palestinian control or carry out reprisal attacks, a change from a policy where Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer had given field commanders a free hand to launch incursions.

At least 444 Palestinians, 87 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in late September after peace talks stalled.

Washington welcomed Sharon's ceasefire appeal as a first step to implementing recommendations by the panel led by former US Senator George Mitchell.

The blueprint called for an immediate cessation of violence followed by confidence-building measures that include a freeze on Jewish settlement construction.

Settlements, on land Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, are illegal under international law. Interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals state that the status of settlements is to be decided in talks on a final treaty.

Sharon, reiterating Government guidelines, said no new settlements would be built but construction would continue within existing ones to accommodate the "natural growth" of their populations.

Sharon stressed that his coalition Government had a duty to provide for the settlements' ongoing needs, "while on the other hand easing our neighbours' fears of the creation of facts that will determine the future of negotiations."

There are 200,000 Israelis in 145 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, home to three million Palestinians.

- REUTERS

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