Arafat urges calm from militants

JERUSALEM -- Yasser Arafat asked militant groups Wednesday to halt attacks on Israelis, the Palestinian leader's first public attempt to restore calm following the collapse of the armed groups' unilateral truce.

But a Hamas leader rejected the call, while Israel, which has tried to sideline Arafat from the peace process, dismissed it as empty rhetoric and said the army would keep rounding up terror suspects and hunting down their leaders.

Militants formally abandoned the nearly two-month unilateral cease-fire after Israel responded to a deadly suicide bombing in Jerusalem last week with missile strikes on Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip.

Arafat stepped forward with the appeal at a time when he's caught in a power struggle with his prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, and when the United States is pressing the Palestinians to act against militants, a key requirement under the creaking U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.

Arafat rejected U.S. demands he give Abbas control of key security forces that would lead any sustained crackdown and instead appointed his own security adviser: the tough former West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub.

Rajoub openly supports the peace plan and has arrested militants in the past. But in an interview with The Associated Press, he was evasive over whether he would launch a crackdown now, and suggested Israel should stop military action first.

"The ball is now in the American court to pressure Israel and monitor the process of implementation," Rajoub said. "If Israel stops its attacks and begins to take serious steps to end the occupation, all the conditions that are demanded of the Palestinians will be fulfilled on the spot."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said he did not believe the United States would have a problem with Rajoub working for Abbas.

"What we want is to see all the Palestinian security forces consolidated under Mr. Abbas," Reeker said. "That's the point. It's not the personality."

Abbas staked his political future on being able to rein in Palestinian militants through persuasion, rather than force. With his authority crumbling, Abbas was meeting with Cabinet ministers Wednesday to try to rally support.

Abbas was to present the achievements of his first 100 days in office to parliament Monday, and aides said he was planning to seek a vote of confidence.

Some in Abbas' inner circle have said he is disheartened by the constant internal criticism; senior figures in Fatah have said Abbas has failed to produce tangible achievements in his negotiations with Israel.

Israel has already snubbed Abbas' call to join any new cease-fire, demanding that instead Palestinian security forces clamp down on armed groups and carry out arrests.

But Palestinian leaders say moving against the militants in the wake of the Israeli raids would cost them dearly in terms of public support and could spark civil war.

In his statement Wednesday, Arafat called on armed groups to renew their commitment to a truce and "to give a chance to political and peaceful efforts by the international community to implement the road map."

A Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip rejected new cease-fire talks, saying Israel had shattered the previous ceasefire by killing a senior Hamas leader last Thursday.

"We say it clearly that after the assassination of martyr Ismail Abu Shanab, the truce has been destroyed," Abdel Aziz Al Rantissi told the Dubai-based Al Arabiya satellite channel.

Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Arafat's statement was meaningless.

"Arafat has never stopped supporting the strategy of terror," Gissin said. "He has over 60 percent of the Palestinian Authority forces under his control and has done nothing with them to pursue a peaceful solution. He has no interest in a peaceful solution."

The U.S. government turned up the heat on Arafat on Tuesday.

"The security forces need to be consolidated under Prime Minister Abbas and Dahlan," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said, referring to Abbas' security chief, Mohammed Dahlan.

"Clearly, by blocking the consolidation ... Arafat undercuts the fight against terrorism and further undermines the hope of the Palestinian people for peace and a Palestinian state."

The armed groups declared June 29 that they were halting attacks on Israel for three months but later changed the terms, saying they had the right to retaliate for Israeli military strikes.

During the cease-fire, the militants carried out three bombings, including last week's Jerusalem bus attack, which killed 21 people. In retaliation, Israel launched the missile strike killing Shanab.

Israel has said every Hamas militant is a potential target for "liquidation."

Hospital sources in the Gaza Strip said a 16-year-old boy had died of shrapnel wounds sustained in a botche strike Tuesday. An elderly store-owner also died.

On Wednesday, Israeli troops detained about a dozen members of a radical PLO faction in Ramallah, where Arafat has his headquarters.

In other developments, an Israeli soldier near a West Bank checkpoint shot and killed a Palestinian man running toward him and brandishing a knife, the army said.