PA says is better prepared for disengagement than Sharon

The Palestinian Authority has been busy preparing to coordinate the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, a senior Palestinian source said Wednesday, adding, "We're better prepared than [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon for the evacuation."

A PA minister said that the Palestinians, assisted by mayors from the area as well as private businesses, will conduct a comprehensive survey of the buildings in the settlements and decide which it wants to keep for the "development and growth of the Palestinian economy." The minister said that, based on international law, it will demand that Israel demolish the rest and remove the rubble. PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas hinted as much earlier this week when he told the Israeli media that Palestinians don't really need "villas," i.e. detached one-family homes. Abbas also said in the interviews he gave to the Israeli press that the PA would fully coordinate withdrawal with the Israelis.

According to the source, two committees of experts, one in Gaza and the other in Ramallah, held secret discussions last month and early this month to prepare recommendations for the Palestinian government.

The committees include dozens of specialists in international law, urban planning, agricultural geography and other areas, and are the technical authorities advising the seven-member PA ministerial committee focusing on the disengagement. The ministerial committee, headed by PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, has met several times in the last two weeks.

Mohammed Dahlan, the PA Minister for Civilian Affairs, has been the authority's liaison with Israel concerning disengagement coordination issues. According to PA sources, Dahlan, who will meet Thursday with Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to discuss those issues, has been holding secret and intensive talks with Israeli officials over the past few weeks.

Earlier this month, at an Aspen Institute conference in Washington that discussed "ways to guarantee a successful withdrawal," Dahlan held talks with Vice Premier Shimon Peres - who is due to meet with Qureia Thursday to discuss coordination - and with National Security Advisor Giora Eiland and his aides. Also attending the conference was Abbas' son and confidant, businessman Yasser Abbas, and PA Minister without Portfolio Hind Khouri, who coordinated the Bethlehem 2000 project, the largest Palestinian civic development and tourism projects so far.

A senior government source also told Haaretz Wednesday that the PA wants Israel to demolish and remove the remains of any buildings in Gaza and the northern Samaria area "that do not serve development and growth needs" of the Palestinians. He said this position was based on the recommendations of the expert committees who have been drafting PA priorities and conditions for coordinating the withdrawal with Israel.

The source said that the costs - financial, ecological and diplomatic - of demolishing buildings in the area to be evacuated was too much for the Palestinians to bear.

The source said the PA has already made a formal decision that as a condition for coordination with Israel, the authority will insist that it be the only beneficiary of the property to be left behind by Israel, and that any negotiations between Israel and third parties like the World Bank or other agencies require PA approval.

The PA has been warning Palestinian businessmen not to engage in separate, private negotiations with Israeli business in the area for the purchase of Israeli assets such as cellular phone antennas.