Mideast officials meet to iron out next steps

JERUSALEM -- Israel is proposing a troop pullout from two more Palestinian towns in the wake of meetings between the two sides' leaders and President Bush, officials said Wednesday.

The pullout, along with release of Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli security barrier going up along the West Bank and Israel's demand to dismantle violent Palestinian groups were on the agenda at a meeting late Wednesday between Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian minister in charge of security.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon discussed the issues on Tuesday with Bush, who also held talks Friday with the Palestinian premier, Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestinians disappointed

Palestinians were disappointed with the results of the Bush-Sharon summit, contending the president took Israel's side on the outstanding issues.

Bush seemed to back off criticism of the security barrier and supported Israel's position that Palestinian prisoners accused of terrorism could not be released. He also called on Palestinians to dismantle violent groups.

Israel's imprisonment of about 7,700 Palestinians has become a main point of contention in negotiations to implement a U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan aimed at ending nearly three years of violence and creating a Palestinian state by 2005.

Israel has agreed to free several hundred, but the Palestinians want a mass release, and militant groups are threatening to call off a truce unless the prisoners are released.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, criticized Bush's statements, which did not set a schedule for implementing the peace plan or stopping construction of a security barrier between Israel and the West Bank. He said Bush's stand "shows a regression from the road map and from the promises from the U.S."

About 200 Palestinians marched in Gaza City on Wednesday to call for prisoner releases. Nafez Azzam of Islamic Jihad said Israel's proposal to release several hundred was "as if someone is trying to throw dust in our eyes."

Israeli pull-back

Israel withdrew from the West Bank town of Bethlehem and much of Gaza shortly after the main Palestinian groups -- Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Arafat's Fatah movement -- began a temporary halt to attacks against Israelis on June 30, significantly reducing violence over the past month.

At Israeli-Palestinian meetings before the round of Washington talks, Israel said it would pull out of two more towns, turning them over to Palestinian security. Officials said the proposal would be discussed at the meeting between Mofaz and Dahlan, which was being held at a hotel outside Jerusalem. According to media reports, the towns are Qalqiliya and Jericho.

Rooting out terrorism

At a news conference Wednesday in Washington, Bush said his goal of establishing a Palestinian state by 2005 is realistic and the United States must help Abbas and his chief of security root out terrorism.

"I'm impressed by Prime Minister Abbas' vision of a peaceful Palestinian state. I believe him when he says that we must root out terror in order for a Palestinian state to exist," Bush said.

Also Wednesday, an Israeli military court handed down 13 life sentences for a leading militant, Ahmed Barghouti, who was convicted of orchestrating attacks in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that killed 12 people. Barghouti, 27, is an aide and cousin to Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian uprising leader also on trial in Israel, charged with murder.