Arafat and Hamas differ on cease-fire timing

PALESTINIAN leader Yasser Arafat yesterday said a formal cease-fire announcement was imminent after Palestinian negotiators secured a commitment from Islamic militants to halt attacks on Israelis for three months.

However, there were growing signs a declaration might only be made over the weekend. Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi said the militant group will "declare to everyone its final decision in the coming days", even though Arafat said an announcement could be made "in the coming few hours".

Despite the promises, violence continued. A Palestinian shot dead an Israeli man and seriously wounded a second both telephone company employees in northern Israel near the West Bank border. Security guards wounded and arrested the assailant, a member of a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement.

Palestinians also fired several mortar shells and homemade rockets at a Jewish settlement in Gaza and an Israeli community bordering the strip. In the West Bank, Israel razed the house of a Hamas militant who allegedly recruited suicide bombers.

A truce might help end 33 months of violence, a necessary prelude to the US-backed "road map" plan aimed at establishing a Palestinian state by 2005. The plan requires the Palestinians to break up the armed groups, but Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud

Abbas has ruled out using force for fear of civil war. The truce deal was negotiated by Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian uprising leader jailed by Israel, and the heads of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups in Damascus, Syria. Barghouti, using envoys, acted on behalf of Palestinian leaders, the negotiators said.

Arafat told reporters at his West Bank headquarters yesterday that a formal announcement would be made soon.

"Until now, it has not been officially decided, but we expect that in the coming few hours, there will be a declaration," he said. No information on the venue was given.

But Mahmdou Zahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said more time was needed. "There is a great deal of communication between all the parties which has intensified ... but at this point, I don't expect that there will be a declaration about our position ... in the coming hours," he said.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders in the Gaza Strip have insisted the deal is not final, while Israel and the United States were sceptical about its value, saying Palestinian security forces must quickly disarm the militias.

As part of the truce talks, the Palestinian militias sought guarantees from Israel that it will halt all military strikes, including targeted killings of wanted Palestinians.

Barghouti's truce document says Israel must halt military strikes, but does not make it a condition for agreement. Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior Arafat aide, said: "We're still waiting for guarantees from the Americans to force Israel to stop its assassination policy."