Israel propose limited troop withdrawal

ISRAEL has proposed withdrawing troops from some Palestinian areas in the West Bank as a test case to see if Palestinian security can prevent attacks, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday.

"We have no interest in staying in those places where the Palestinians can prove that they can take control," Peres told Israel Radio.

The proposal was made at Israeli-Palestinian talks as part of an effort to find ways of easing the tough restrictions placed on Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel's army has occupied seven of the eight main Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank for the past month, keeping hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in their houses under curfew.

Peres did not specify any places, but Army Radio said troops could withdraw from Hebron and Bethlehem by tomorrow if those areas remain quiet.

The Palestinians say their security forces can't re-establish control until after the Israeli forces pull out. Many Palestinian security force buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks on the structures.

"The key to breaking the circle of violence begins with the Israeli withdrawal from all the Palestinian cities," said Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.

Meanwhile, a bomb attack on a train injured the engineer as it was travelling south of Tel Aviv, in Yavneh, yesterday morning.

The explosion went off on the tracks and damaged the engine of the passenger train, police said. The engineer was injured in the abdomen by the force of the blast, but the train was not derailed, police said.

The remote-control bomb weighed five kilograms (11 pounds), police said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but police believe it the action of Palestinian militants.

At last night talks, the meeting focused on efforts to boost the Palestinian economy, which has been shattered by nearly 22 months of fighting.

The two sides discussed the possible transfer of taxes that Israel has collected on behalf of the Palestinians, but has withheld since shortly after violence erupted in September 2000.

Israel is now holding about $600 million, saying it doesn't want to release the money to the Palestinian Authority, because it believes it has been funding terror attacks against Israel.

Israel will not transfer the funds until an international committee is set up to oversee how the money is handled, Peres said.

Before fighting began, an estimated 125,000 Palestinians crossed daily into Israel for work. Israel has since blocked most Palestinians from entering. Closures in the West Bank and curfews in individual towns have also prevented Palestinians from working in their own towns.

Peres told the Palestinians that 7,000 work permits will be issued in the coming days as long as there were no attacks. It was not immediately clear if the attack on the train Sunday would change the Israeli decision.

The Israelis also told the Palestinians that the permitted fishing zone off the coast of the Gaza Strip would be extended, and a crossing point between Gaza and Israel would remain open for longer periods to allow more merchandise to pass through, Army Radio said.