PA optimistic that deal with Israel on Rafah crossing is near

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday night that the PA was near a deal with Israel to reopen a border crossing for Palestinians between Gaza and Egypt.

"We will put the final touches on the opening of the crossing [Monday]," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah after officials held talks with an EU envoy on a role for European monitors at the Rafah crossing.

An Israeli official said "there is momentum" in the talks but would not say whether a deal was at hand.

The EU had balked at Israel's demand that its monitors arrest anyone suspected of smuggling arms from Egypt to Gaza militants, while Palestinians objected to Israel's demand to film those who use the crossing, an Israeli political source said.

But Palestinians were optimistic after a flurry of talks by EU envoy Marc Otte who shuttled between Tel Aviv and the West Bank town of Ramallah holding talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said after meeting Otte he hoped to see an agreement "at the earliest possible date."

An aide to Abbas, Rafiq al-Husseini, when queried about Abbas's remark, said "there will be an agreement very soon" and that he hoped the crossing would open "in the coming few days."

The European Union has taken an active role in the negotiations and plans to announce Monday it will launch a three-year mission - starting January 1 - to help the Palestinians build up a credible police force, EU officials said on Sunday.

Officials said the decision by the EU foreign ministers will not mean European police officers patrolling the streets of Palestinian cities. The EU plans to provide law enforcement experts to advise on how to staff, manage and finance Palestinian police forces, officials said.

The EU currently has seven advisors working with regular Palestinian Authority police forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The newly-announced plan, which has been approved by Israel, will bring another 26 EU law enforcement advisors to Ramallah and Gaza in January. The total force, including local Palestinian employees, would number 50 people.

Officials said the police mission's first priority would be to provide more security on the streets of Gaza City and Ramallah, followed by Nablus and other Palestinian cities. It is not yet clear if the force will deal with the prevention of terrorism.

The EU police mission will be the EU's first security role as part of international efforts to get Israel and the Palestinians to make peace.

To date, the Europeans have been consigned to providing economic and financial aid to the Palestinians, totaling some $597 million a year.

Otte, the EU envoy, said after meeting Palestinian officials in the West Bank that the EU was ready to play a "third party" role at the crossing and monitor Israeli and Palestinian operations there.

He reassured Palestinians that the EU monitors would not seek to supplant Palestinian security officers.

"Obviously what we will not be doing is taking the place of the Palestinian customs and security officials. In the end the Palestinian Authority will be in charge of its borders," Otte said.

Cabinet does not discuss Rafah arrangementsThe cabinet on Sunday did not debate the possible approval of a border crossing for Palestinians between Gaza and Egypt because of disagreement over the role of European Union security monitors, political sources said.

"The two sides must agree on a mandate for the EU" before any customs inspectors are deployed at Rafah, EU spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.

Haaretz correspondent Akiva Eldar adds that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz earlier said that Israel is trying to advance the opening of the Rafah crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border.

Following talks with Bush administration officials in Washington D.C., Mofaz said that if procedures at the crossing are agreed upon in the upcoming two weeks, the border crossing would open.

Mofaz met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as well as Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn, with whom he discussed the border crossing.

During her visit to Israel next week, Rice will urge the government to rescind restrictions on the transfer of merchandise at the Karni and Erez crossings.

Wolfensohn will also visit Israel next week, in an effort to salvage this year's vegetable export season in the Gaza Strip.

	Palestinian police officers riding in through the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. (AP)