PM: PA starting to fulfill duties; Abbas: no terror crackdown

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday that the Palestinians are beginning meet their obligations under the terms of the internationally-brokered road map to Middle East peace, Army Radio reported.

But, said Sharon, "we must still be firm on all aspects relating to security."

"Nowadays there is more quiet and the public can feel it. Both sides have recently increased the chances to reach peace," the radio quoted the prime minister as saying.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that he will not crack down on Palestinian militant groups, despite being urged by America and Israel to do so.

After meeting in Cairo with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Abbas was asked by reporters if he will dismantle armed groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, steps Israel is demanding before withdrawing its forces from more Palestinian towns.

"Cracking down on Hamas, Jihad and the Palestinian organizations is not an option at all," Abbas said before leaving Egypt to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah II. "We are applying the law which we accepted under the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, and that is what we will do." The Palestinian Authority says a crackdown could trigger civil war, while militants warn such a move could nullify a shaky three-month truce in attacks on Israelis.

In Jordan later Tuesday, Abbas reaffirmed in a meeting with Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abul-Ragheb that he was committed to "implement Palestinian provisions under the road map," but stressed that "Israel must do its part as well," the official Petra news agency said.

Petra quoted Abul-Ragheb as urging Israel to "undertake practical and tangible steps" toward releasing Palestinian prisoners and ceasing building settlements and a wall separating Israel from the West Bank.

Disarming militant groups responsible for attacks on Israelis is a condition of the U.S.-backed road map to Middle East peace, which envisions an end to violence and creating an independent Palestinian state by 2005.Under the road map, Israel withdrew from parts of Gaza and the West Bank town of Bethlehem, but refuses to hand over more land unless the Palestinians disarm militant groups. Abbas has preferred to negotiate with militant groups - not forcibly crackdown on them - in a bid to end attacks.

In an apparent move to satisfy Israel, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on Sunday issued a decree outlawing "incitement that encourages the use of violence that harms relations with foreign countries." Abbas and Palestinian security chief Mohamed Dahlan held talks in Cairo Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Egypt's intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, on the road map and Abbas' upcoming visit to Washington.

Abbas is expected to meet U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scheduled to meet the American president next Tuesday. A Palestinian official said Mubarak pledged to work to force Israel to lift its confinement of Arafat to his Ramallah compound, where he has been holed up for more than a year.

Israel has rejected a Palestinian appeal to allow Arafat freedom of movement, saying he can leave his compound, but he might not be allowed to return. Initially, Abbas had said that he would not travel to Washington before an end to Arafat's confinement. But Tuesday, he said he and Arafat had agreed that Abbas should travel to America to "serve the (Palestinian) cause and our internal situation. Our goal and concern is that he (Arafat) would be free and travel wherever he wants."

Abbas said he would press Bush and other U.S. officials to make Israel comply with its road map requirements, including dismantling Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and ending restrictions on movement. The Palestinians have also been pressing Israel to release more of the estimated 7,700 Palestinians in Israeli jails. Israel has agreed to free several hundred, but has so far resisted Palestinian demands for a mass release.

	Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas (right), with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa in Cairo on Tuesday: Cracking down on Palestinian groups could trigger a civil war. (AP)