MIDDLE EAST Palestinian sees hope for a truce

Leaders will meet to prepare for a summit with President Bush next week.
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Palestinian leaders could reach an agreement with the Islamic militant group Hamas to stop suicide attacks and other violence against Israelis as early as next week, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said in comments published today.
Reaching a cease-fire with Palestinian militant groups is one of the key demands Israel and the United States are making on the new Palestinian premier, and Abbas' comments come just hours before a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to discuss a U.S.-backed peace plan.
"I believe that next week I will reach a cease-fire agreement with Hamas," the premier said in an interview published in the daily Yediot Ahronot. Abbas said he also hoped to reach an agreement with the Islamic Jihad, but had not met with the group yet.
'Road map' requirement
The announcement is in line with Abbas' promise to stop militant attacks that have killed hundreds of Israelis since the latest violence began -- a crucial requirement of the first phase of an internationally backed "road map" to peace.
The road map calls for parallel steps by the two sides, but Israel has demanded that Abbas crack down on violent groups before the rest of the plan is implemented. Abbas has said he preferred dialogue over the Israeli demand that he arrest and disarm militants.
The planned meeting between Abbas and Sharon tonight was turning into a preparatory session for a summit with President Bush, which the White House announced would take place Wednesday in the Jordanian Red Sea resort of Aqaba.
Palestinian officials also said they would demand an explicit Israeli statement recognizing their right to a state.
Conditions possible
A senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Alzahar, told Israel Radio today that the group was considering a cease-fire with no conditions attached.
"Hamas will discuss the issue of how to make a cease-fire," he said.
But the radio later reported that another senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Abu Shanab, outlined three conditions for a cease-fire: that Israel stop operations against Palestinians, free Palestinian prisoners, and withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza.
Abbas met last week with Hamas, but no conclusions were reached. Another meeting is scheduled for next week, by which time Abbas said he hoped to have an agreement.
Hamas official Abdel Aziz Rantisi told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the organization might be willing to go along with a cease-fire if Israel calls off its military operations against Palestinians.
Gamble by Bush
The trip is a high-stakes gamble by Bush, who had been roundly criticized in Europe and the Arab world for not moving quickly into the Mideast morass and is now jumping in with both feet.
"The president believes there is a new opportunity for peace with the end of the war in Iraq," his national security assistant, Condoleezza Rice, said Wednesday.
The appointment of Abbas as Palestinian prime minister, Israel's acceptance of a road map or blueprint for peacemaking and statements by Sharon all were cited by Rice as reasons for Bush to get directly involved.
She apparently referred to Sharon's saying this week that the Palestinians were living under occupation and that Israel did not want to remain in charge of Palestinian cities.
Rice cautioned: "This is going to be a long process, and it is going to have its ups and downs as it always has."
Elliott Abrams, who heads the Middle East desk at the National Security Council, and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns left Wednesday for talks in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Arafat, the wild card
The wild card is Yasser Arafat, recognized by virtually the entire world -- and Abbas -- as the leader of the Palestinian people.
He has not been invited to either summit, but his attempt to inject himself into the process could undermine Bush's effort to inspire democracy and foster counterterrorism among the Palestinians and to persuade Sharon to strike a deal with Abbas. Bush and Sharon reject Arafat's involvement, saying he has colluded with terrorists.
Rice said Abbas "will need to be devoted to creating security services that can fight terror." Sharon has sidelined peace efforts in the past when terrorists struck Israelis,
And Secretary of State Colin Powell said Bush would look to the Arab leaders in their meeting at Sharm el-Sheik, an Egyptian Red Sea resort, to "increasingly isolate those who support terror."
Palestinian state
The road map, prepared with the help of the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, envisions the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005.
Other key provisions call for an end to 32 months of conflict, a freeze on construction of Jewish homes on the West Bank and in Gaza and a commitment by both sides to eschew violence.
Nabil Fahmy, Egypt's ambassador to the United States, praised Bush and his administration for playing a more active role in peacemaking, but he said his government differed from the United States on Arafat's role. "We cannot agree and do not agree that Arafat is irrelevant," he said.
Klaus Larres, an international relations professor at the Library of Congress, said the stakes for Bush were high. "Bush's readiness to get involved in the Palestinian-Israeli problem is quite a turning point for him. He would not do that if he did not think there wasn't a fairly good chance of pulling something off."
Judith Kipper, of the Council on Foreign Relations, a private research group, said: "For Bush it's a win-win situation. After the Iraq war the whole word was expecting him to do something. ... Even if things don't work out right away, he will be able to say 'I made an effort and went the extra mile.'"
The summit with Arab leaders, she said, is the more important of the two meetings. "There is a lot of anti-Americanism in the region. People are not clear of America's intentions. It will give the president a chance to clear the air with Arab leaders."
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