Israelis and Palestinians agree logistics of election

ISRAEL and the Palestinians have agreed on the logistics of the upcoming election to replace Yasser Arafat, a senior Palestinian official said yesterday.

But he denied reports that the two sides had worked out a broader deal to end their decades-old conflict.

The Palestinians had demanded that Israel cease military operations and withdraw from Palestinian cities and towns to allow candidates to campaign for the January 9 presidential elections to replace Arafat.

The Palestinians also insisted that residents of east Jerusalem be allowed to vote, a demand that Israel has resisted. Palestinians want east Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 Mideast war, to be their future capital.

The two sides have agreed to hold the elections using the same procedures that were in place for the last Palestinian elections, Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said. "We received assurances that the elections of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip will take place as they did in 1996. I am satisfied with that. I am happy."

During those elections, residents of east Jerusalem were allowed to vote at five polling stations in the region, but their ballots were officially classified as absentee ballots.

A senior Israeli official confirmed that the two sides had reached an agreement in principle, based on the 1996 election.

The agreement comes amid signs of warming ties following Arafat's death. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he would like to meet with top Palestinian officials after the election and has offered to co-ordinate his withdrawal from Gaza with them.

Israeli lawmakers said yesterday that two small Gaza settlements - Nissanit and Elei Sinai - have asked to be relocated as whole communities into Israel. A third settlement, Prat Sadeh, has asked to be moved as a whole into the West Bank, Army Radio reported.

Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, a leading candidate to replace Arafat, has been negotiating with militant groups to end attacks on Israel.

On Tuesday, the official Egyptian Middle East News Agency MENA reported that Egypt had brokered terms of an Israel-Palestinian truce and principles of an accord for ending the overall Israeli-Palestinian conflict.