Peres calls for creation of central Palestinian state

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has unveiled a peace plan calling for the centralisation of Palestinian security forces immediately.

Peres said in a radio interview in Jerusalem that he is trying to get Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the international community to support the plan.

Sharon has said a Palestinian state could only be established after a long interim process and Sharon's Likud party has said it will oppose the creation of such an entity.

The ruling coalition includes Peres' left-centre Labour Party and Sharon's right-wing Likud party.

Peres' peace plan is partially based on understandings reached in talks he held in the past year with Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia.

Jordan's Prime Minister Ali Abul-Ragheb and Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher are arriving in the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and outline a Jordanian vision for restarting long-stalled Middle East peacemaking, including a specific timetable for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Jordanian Information Minister Mohammad Affash Adwan said Abul-Ragheb and Muasher will also brief Arafat on the outcome of last week's talks in Washington between King Abdullah and George W Bush.

Peacemaking efforts have gained momentum recently in the wake of an Israeli offensive in the West Bank meant to uproot militants responsible for a wave of suicide bombings in the Jewish state. Israel and the Palestinians have been locked in a cycle of violence that broke out 19 months ago after peace talks stalled.

In the latest violence, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a civilian convoy in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said. During an ensuing gun battle, four soldiers were lightly wounded. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine says it carried out the attack.

Peres said he and Qureia, who has been mentioned as a possible successor to Arafat, agreed during their talks that the thorniest issues of the conflict - borders, Jerusalem, Jewish settlements and Palestinian refugees - could be negotiated after a Palestinian state was established.