Palestinians pull out of talks to end siege

JERUSALEM - Palestinians yesterday called off scheduled talks on ending a week-long Israeli siege of Yasser Arafat's office in the West Bank town of Ramallah, saying Israel would not allow international negotiators to meet Arafat first.

Israel maintained its grip on the ravaged compound, defying a UN Security Council resolution and pressure from the US, Europe and the Arab world to pull back. Israel did ease curfew restrictions in other parts of Ramallah.

One consequence of the siege was a halt to efforts to reform Arafat's regime, said Arafat's deputy, Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas has been mentioned as a possible prime minister if the Palestinians appoint one to take on some of Arafat's duties in the framework of reforms.

But Abbas said there could be no talk of reforms "while our president is under such cruel and unprecedented aggression".

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel could not carry out the UN resolution "because the other part will not be fulfilled". He said Palestinian security forces were not stopping militants from attacking.

However, Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, like Peres a member of the moderate Labour Party, set a different condition for ending the blockade, demanding the surrender of 19 terror suspects in Arafat's office.

"The rest are not important," he told Israel Radio.

Until Ben-Eliezer spoke, Israel was saying it would not withdraw from the compound until about 200 people inside surrendered, among them 50 allegedly involved in attacks on Israelis, including Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi.

Tirawi denied the allegations and vowed not to surrender. "Yasser Arafat and I will fight to the last minute," Tirawi said.

- REUTERS

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