Annan in Middle East

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday and said the world was determined to nurture budding Middle East peace moves.

Palestinian militant leaders said they were ready for a formal ceasefire, seen as a crucial precursor to "road map" negotiations on Palestinian statehood, if Israel freed 8,000 prisoners and pulled back forces in the occupied West Bank.

After his talks with Mr Annan, Mr Abbas said he expected to win militants over to a formal truce, cementing a tacit deal prone to violations, in talks with them today in Cairo.

"We hope the dialogue in Cairo will yield positive results because the conditions are right among all parties concerned," he told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected the truce bid, repeating Israel's demand under the US-backed road map peace plan for Mr Abbas to dismantle militant groups rather than negotiate with them.

Mr Abbas, a moderate elected in January to succeed Yasser Arafat, has vowed to try to control such groups but prefers to do so through dialogue rather than confrontation.

Israel has also delayed a promised pull-back from West Bank cities in a dispute over its scope and has balked at freeing many jailed militants it says were involved in killings of Israelis during a four-year armed uprising.

Israeli and Palestinian officials met in Israel to try to resolve these issues yesterday.

Mr Abbas and Mr Sharon issued mutual ceasefire declarations at a February 8 summit. But sporadic violence has persisted, including a February 25 Palestinian suicide bombing that killed five Israelis and slowed post-summit diplomatic momentum.

Militant leaders gathering in Cairo said they were prepared to declare a conditional official halt to hostilities. Egyptian go-betweens had proposed a one-year truce to start, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command said.

"We can come out with a ceasefire agreement but we will not enter (into one) with no guarantees when there are 8,000 prisoners behind Israeli bars," a senior Hamas official said.

Mr Sharon rejected the offer. "The ceasefire the Palestinians are working for does not give up the terror option," he told Dutch Prime Minister Jan Pieter Balkenende in Jerusalem.

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, told Reuters in response he hoped Israel "will keep its commitment" to the ceasefire declared last month in Egypt.

Mr Annan, on his first visit to the region in almost four years, went to the West Bank after talks in Jerusalem on Sunday with Mr Sharon. He will also attend the opening today of Israel's revamped Holocaust museum.

Mr Annan told reporters he intended to promote the long-stymied "road map" plan for a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza alongside a secure Israel. "The international community is determined to work with both sides to press for the implementation of the road map and work to ensure that the day when a Palestinian state is established side by side with Israel will not be (far off)," Mr Annan said.

Mr Abbas is keen to launch road map talks soon but Mr Sharon is preoccupied with looming resistance by diehard settlers to his plan to evacuate them from Gaza, and has vowed to keep much larger West Bank settlements he views as strategically vital.

Mr Sharon aims to withdraw from Gaza this summer but to do so he must first outwit rightist foes now blocking a parliamentary majority for the 2005 budget. He has to pass the budget by March 31 to escape snap elections that would stall the pull-out.

Settlers escalated their protests againt the Gaza plan yesterday by blocking a key Tel Aviv highway with burning tyres for half an hour. Police arrested 18 protesters to reopen the road.