Arafat asks Prime Minister to form new government

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) – Yasser Arafat on Tuesday asked Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia to stay on the job and form a new government by next week, officials said, a move that could give a small lift to troubled U.S.-backed peace plan.

Qureia, whose one-month term as head of an emergency Cabinet ends next week, said he hasn’t received a formal offer yet, but that he would accept once he receives it.

The United States and other international mediators have been closely watching Palestinian efforts to form a government, saying a stable Palestinian leadership is needed to push the road map peace plan forward. Still, Tuesday’s announcement failed to resolve the sticky issue of who would oversee Palestinian security forces.

Undercover Israeli troops killed a fugitive Palestinian militant in a West Bank refugee camp, witnesses said. Ibrahim al-Naneesh, 37, was a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a militant group loosely linked to Arafat’s Fatah faction.

The army said the fugitive was responsible for several attacks on Israeli civilians and fired at soldiers who killed him. Soldiers found an M-16 and several magazines on the body. Shortly after, a second militant opened fire. Soldiers fired back and hit him. The wounded militant was taken to a Tulkarem hospital.

The developments came as Israel held local elections in which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party was expected to lose several key mayorships.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned a senior Swiss diplomat to protest Switzerland’s backing for an informal Mideast peace plan reached by former Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, an official said Tuesday.

Qureia currently heads an emergency Cabinet whose term expires Nov. 4. There had been some uncertainty over whether Qureia, upset by arguments with Arafat over control of the security forces, would agree to continue in the job.

Palestinian officials gave conflicting accounts about Tuesday’s meeting of the PLO leadership.

Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and Abbas Zaki, a senior PLO official, said Qureia had accepted Arafat’s offer to form a new government. But reached later, Qureia said he had not been formally invited, although he plans to accept the offer.

“The plan is to have this government ready” by the time the term of the emergency Cabinet expires, Shaath said. “We do not want any more time wasted.”

Qureia’s previous efforts to form a larger government have failed because of wrangling over appointments. In particular, Qureia had been unable to agree with Arafat over the key post of interior minister, which would control the various Palestinian security agencies.

Shaath said the interior minister’s post so far remains unfilled.

“There will be a strong a capable interior minister who will exercise all security responsibilities assigned to him,” he said. “No names were discussed this morning, but as I said the principles and the basis are all agreed to.”

Israel and the United States say the forces must be consolidated under one body, in order to be effective in dismantling militant groups.

Qureia, who hopes to reach a cease-fire with Israel and get peace talks back on track, had unsuccessfully tried to attract representatives of Islamic militant groups into his first government.

In Israel, about 3.8 million Israelis were eligible to vote in the local elections. Turnout was expected to be low.

A Likud loss could weaken Sharon, who led the party to a sweeping victory in February general elections but has been hurt recently by corruption allegations.

Sharon is expected to be questioned by police this week in connection with those allegations, according to Israeli media. The Maariv newspaper reported Sharon would be questioned Tuesday.

Analysts said Likud might be hurt on the local level by infighting and competition from independent candidates as well as Sharon’s decision to keep traditional allies, including the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, out of the governing coalition. Shas is very active on the municipal level.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said Switzerland’s acting head of mission, Claude Altermatt, was summoned on Monday. Peled said Israeli officials expressed “misgivings about the Swiss involvement in promoting” the peace plan.

Altermatt said he stressed during the meeting that Switzerland had only been a facilitator and that the negotiators were responsible for the final document.

“Switzerland just provided a frame and gave money to push activities toward a peace solution here in the Middle East, where a very complex conflict is under way,” he said.

Altermatt said his government would support the formal launch of the document at a ceremony next month.

The Geneva agreement envisions a Palestinian state in 98 percent of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip, lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinian refugees would largely be blocked from returning to what is today Israel.

Sharon has expressed his opposition to the Geneva accord.