Peace onus on Palestinians after Gaza exit - Sharon

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the UN General Assembly yesterday it was now up to the Palestinians to prove they want peace following Israel's pull-out from the Gaza Strip.

In his first speech to the world body - one most Israelis view as a bastion of anti-Israeli sentiment - Mr Sharon also said Israel bore no more responsibility for Gaza following the withdrawal it completed on Monday after 38 years of occupation.

"The Palestinians will always be our neighbours. We respect them and don't aspire to rule over them. They also deserve freedom and a sovereign national entity in their own country," Mr Sharon said, speaking in Hebrew.

But he added: "Now it is the Palestinians' turn to prove their desire for peace."

The withdrawal of Israeli troops and 8,500 settlers from Gaza is part of Mr Sharon's plan to disengage from conflict with the Palestinians.

Mr Sharon said the pull-out opened a "window of opportunity" for moving along a US-backed peace "road map" that envisages creation of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. But he said the Palestinian Authority faced its "greatest test" and must first, under the road map, "put an end to terror and its infrastructure, eliminate the anarchy of armed gangs and cease incitement" against Israel and the Jews.

Palestinian leaders said in response the only solution was a complete Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories including the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

"The problem can only be solved by ending the occupation that began in 1967," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

Mr Erekat also called anew on Israel to resume negotiations on Palestinian statehood, a step Israel has ruled out until Palestinians disarm militants opposed to peacemaking.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who declared a ceasefire along with Mr Sharon in February, has avoided confronting powerful militant groups, citing the risk of civil war. Instead, he wants to coopt them into security services.

The groups have refused to disarm and threatened to discard the truce in the face of Israel's continued expansion of much larger settlements in the West Bank, gobbling up occupied land key to Palestinians hopes for a state of viable size.