Palestinian leaders push for indefinite ceasefire

The Palestinian Authority is trying to convince militants to extend their ceasefire indefinitely, an official has said.

Palestinian information minister Nabil Amr spoke as Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas announced he would travel to Washington this month to meet US president George Bush.

The moves aimed at strengthening the fragile Middle East ceasefire came as Israel celebrated an overnight commando raid yesterday that rescued a taxi driver who had been kidnapped and held for days in a West Bank pit. He was freed unhurt, and all his captors – who the Israeli army said were not backed by Palestinian militant groups – were arrested.

Amr said he was working to extend the June 29 ceasefire, and urged Israel to strengthen the truce by softening its demand that the Palestinians quickly disarm militant groups; releasing Palestinian prisoners; dismantling settlement outposts, among other measures.

“We have a plan to transform the [ceasefire] from a limited one to one that is for an indefinite period of time,” he told The Associated Press last night.

The Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups declared a three-month moratorium on attacks on Israelis, while the Fatah movement headed by Yasser Arafat declared a six-month truce. The three groups have been responsible for most of the suicide bombings and shootings that have killed hundreds of Israelis since September 2000.

Israel has been pressing the Palestinians to crack down on armed militants, a move required by the US backed “road map” plan that aims to end 33 months of violence and establish a Palestinian state by 2005.

Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom warned on Tuesday that if Palestinians did not take action soon, the ceasefire could collapse. Israel has also refused to pull out of any more Palestinian towns – as required by the road map – until a crackdown begins.

The trips to Washington by the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, appeared to be part of an effort by Washington to find a way out of the deadlock.

The announcement by Abbas that he would meet Bush on July 25 was something of a display of independence by the prime minister, who has been under pressure to avoid travel until Israel restores full freedom of movement to Arafat.

However, Palestinian politician Saeb Erekat said Arafat – who has been confined to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah for more than a year and a half – had approved the trip. The two have wrangled over sharing power since Arafat reluctantly appointed Abbas premier in April, giving in to international pressure.

Abbas’ visit will also closely preceded by a Sharon-Bush meeting on July 29.

Abbas said key issues would be stopping Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank – a road map provision – and freeing the 7,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails – which is not, but has emerged as a sticking point.

Israel badly offended the Palestinians last week when it decided to release only several hundred – and there were indications that Israel was looking for ways to increase the number before a planned weekend meeting between Abbas and Sharon.

It was unclear what support the Palestinian proposal to extend the unilateral truce will win among the armed groups themselves. Amr said officials had discussed the idea with militant groups, whose response was non-committal. “They said, ‘Let’s see what the Israelis do’,” Amr said.

Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a top leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, dismissed the idea as “dreams”.

“These are illusions,” Rantisi said. “If [Amr] said this I want to tell him that there is no one who can give any inch from the land of Palestine” by permanently accepting the existence of Israel.

The Israeli government was also unimpressed. Dore Gold, a Sharon adviser, called the ceasefire an ”internal Palestinian matter” and said an extension would not change Israel’s demand that the militants be disarmed.

“Israel works with the road map,” Gold said. “The critical first step the Palestinian Authority must take is the dismantlement of the terror infrastructure.”