Abbas to ask Hamas to end Israeli attacks

THE Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, has arranged a meeting with Hamas, his first since taking office a month ago, to persuade the Islamic militant group to stop attacks on Israelis, officials said yesterday.

Abbas plans to meet with Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip, according to Ismail Hanieh, a spokesman of the group. The meeting was set to take place late last night or today.

According to a Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, Abbas is also weighing a US proposal that he meet with President Bush in Qatar.

US administration officials have said Bush might visit the Mideast at the end of a European trip next month, with possible stops in the Gulf states of Kuwait or Qatar, countries that supported the United States during the Iraq war.

Meanwhile, in new violence, six Palestinian children, ranging in age from 9 to 14, were wounded by army fire after throwing stones at Israeli tanks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian doctors said. A 14-year-old boy is in critical condition.

A US-backed plan, the so-called "road map" to Mideast peace, calls for ending violence immediately and setting up a Palestinian state by 2005. In the first of plan's three phases, Palestinian security forces would rein in militias that have carried out scores of shootings and bombings in the past 32 months, while Israel would withdraw from Palestinian towns and freeze construction in Jewish settlements.

The Palestinians have accepted the plan, while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has expressed major reservations, insisting among other things that the Palestinians crack down on militants before Israel makes a move. Sharon has said he would not give a formal response on the road map until he has discussed his reservations with Bush.

With Egypt's help, Abbas has been trying to persuade Hamas and Islamic Jihad to accept a "hudna", a one-year suspension of attacks. Previous truce talks in Cairo have failed, and Egypt told Palestinian officials this week it would not renew mediation efforts until Israel has accepted the road map.

Sharon told Abbas in their weekend summit that a suspension of attacks was insufficient. Sharon insisted that Palestinians disarm the militias and arrest their leaders, saying a mere suspension of violence would allow the militants weakened by Israeli military strikes to regroup and plan more attacks.

Abbas told Sharon, according to minutes of the four-hour meeting, that "the ceasefire will just be the beginning, it will not be the end".

Abbas also said he considered the "weapons chaos" in the Palestinian areas unacceptable, suggesting he would disarm militias at some point.

In yesterday's violence, about 20 school children threw stones at Israeli tanks in the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, witnesses said. Soldiers fired M-16 assault rifles, injuring five youngsters in arms and legs, doctors said. The army said soldiers fired warning shots to disperse stone throwers.

In the West Bank village of Al Yamoun, a 14-year-old boy was critically wounded by army fire in similar circumstances, doctors said.