Israel, Palestinians agree deal before Rice visit

3.00pm

GAZA - Israel and the Palestinians reached a disengagement deal in the Gaza Strip and Hamas said it decided to suspend attacks on Israelis - dramatic moves driven by US pressure to bolster a Middle East peace "road map."

The deal on an Israeli troop pullback in Gaza was announced before Saturday's visit to the region by US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice as Israel and the Palestinians jockeyed for pride of place in pushing forward the U.S.-backed peace plan.

Rice, viewed in Israel as one of its strongest backers in Washington, was likely to press Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas in talks in the West Bank Saturday to dismantle Hamas and other militant groups as mandated by the road map.

Against the backdrop of US pressure and Israeli attacks on it senior militants, Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Reuters his group "has reached a decision to call a truce, or a suspension of fighting activities."

But he said a truce would carry conditions and be declared only after Hamas and other militant groups agreed on a joint statement in a 33-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

A senior Israeli government source said a Hamas cease-fire would not be "worth the paper it's written on." The group, on the US list of terrorist organizations, has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings it calls resistance to occupation.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States would withhold judgment until Hamas formally declared a truce.

But he hailed the deal on Gaza. "This is a very positive development," Powell said in Washington Friday "It reflects the kind of movement that the president and the other leaders called for."

In New York, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Annan welcomed the agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

"He looks forward to continued implementation of the road map, leading to a permanent settlement of the conflict...," he said.

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

However troops will remain around Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, where buffer zones are to be set up between the Israeli army and Palestinian security forces, the source said after talks mediated by US Middle East envoy John Wolf.

The source also said Palestinian forces would be given a chance to act on Israeli tips on any pending attacks by militants before Israel launched "track-and-kill" operations.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said talks would be held Sunday to finalize a similar withdrawal in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

"The agreement represents a first significant joint step toward implementation of commitments made by each side at the Aqaba summit," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

He was referring to talks President Bush held with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Aqaba, Jordan on June 4 in which they affirmed the peace plan that leads to the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

When some 60 people died in a surge of violence after the summit, Powell mounted a trouble-shooting mission to Israel and the Palestinian areas on June 20 and pressed both sides to speed up efforts to implement the road map.

The United States also accelerated a diplomatic drive against Hamas, calling it an "enemy of peace" and urging the international community to block any funding for the group.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said earlier that a truce would be a useful first step toward peace but must be followed by the dismantling of militant groups.

Palestinian officials have said a confrontation with Hamas, an Islamic organization widely popular with Palestinians feeling the brunt of Israeli military action, could start a civil war.

At least 2,129 Palestinians and 760 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began after peace talks collapsed in 2000.

- REUTERS