Middle East ceasefire moves 'insufficient'

JERUSALEM - Israel said Palestinian moves to implement a ceasefire promised by President Yasser Arafat have fallen short of its demands, but it has yet to give up on chances for a truce.

A fierce gunbattle that wounded 20 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border yesterday underscored the difficulties of putting into motion any plans to end eight months of bloodshed.

Urgent international efforts were being made to foster a truce amid fears of strong Israeli military retaliation for a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed the bomber and 20 people at a Tel Aviv disco on Friday.

Israel was enforcing its tightest blockades since the Palestinian uprising began in September, crippling movement and business in the West Bank and Gaza.

Fuel was running out fast in Gaza.

Russian Middle East envoy Andrei Vdovin is to hold talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres today and also is expected to visit Palestinian territories.

Israeli cabinet secretary Gideon Saar said steps taken by the Palestinian Authority to put a ceasefire into effect were insufficient.

"There has been incitement and no arrests [of Muslim militants by the Palestinian Authority]."

He said that failure to round up the fundamentalists made further bombings inside Israel more likely.

"But if there's even the slightest chance of getting off the track we've been on for the past eight months, it is worth taking it," he said.

Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a senior Arafat aide, said the Palestinian side was handling the ceasefire "according to President Arafat's instructions," despite "the deadly Israeli siege of our cities and villages."

Palestinian security officials have said the Palestinian Authority would not stop demonstrations in its territory and could not halt shootings in areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip under Israeli security control.

The security officials also said Palestinian forces would not make arbitrary arrests of militants.

Marwan Barghouthi, a senior Fatah leader in the West Bank, said: "We respect Arafat's ceasefire orders but nobody would dare call for an end to the Intifada [uprising] because occupation is the worst terrorist act against our people."

Nonetheless, Israeli officials acknowledged a reduction in violence since Arafat made his ceasefire promise on Saturday.

- REUTERS

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