Powell praises symbolic Israeli-Palestinian deal

JERUSALEM -- A symbolic Mideast peace deal has won praise from Secretary of State Colin Powell, the second senior U.S. official in a week to express support for such "freelance" initiatives at a time of deadlock over a Washington-led peace plan.

Powell's letter to the authors of the so-called Geneva Accord, made public Friday, was seen by some as a veiled rebuke to Israel's hard-line prime minister, Ariel Sharon, who has attacked the agreement as subversive. An Israeli official brushed aside Powell's letter, saying it would have no effect, and that the U.S.-backed "road map" plan remains the only serious proposal.

In the West Bank, weeks of political wrangling appeared closer to resolution Friday as Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and veteran leader Yasser Arafat agreed on the appointment of an interior minister.

The two also moved closer to resolving a dispute over control of security forces, a Palestinian official said. An end to the standoff would clear the way for formation of a new Palestinian government and a renewal of high-level talks with Israel.

The road map details steps toward ending three years of violent and establishing a Palestinian state by 2005, but does not detail national borders. The Geneva agreement fills that gap, calling for a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, virtually all of the West Bank and Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Its authors say it is compatible with the U.S.-backed plan.

In new violence Friday, Israeli troops killed three Palestinians, including a 10-year-old boy and a gunman. Soldiers also caught a top Islamic Jihad fugitive suspected of having plotted several major suicide bombings, including an Oct. 4 attack that killed 21 people in a Haifa restaurant.

In one clash Friday in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata, troops battled Palestinian gunmen and killed a 23-year-old Palestinian man who witnesses said was an unarmed bystander. The army said it shot at a man who threw three explosive devices at the troops.

Separately, Israeli troops in the northern West Bank arrested a senior Islamic Jihad leader, Amjad Obeidi, after tossing a hand grenade into his hideout, the military and witnesses said. The blast lightly injured Obeidi.

The army said troops came under fire as they were leaving with Obeidi, and in one exchange killed a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant faction with links to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. With angry shouts for revenge, several hundred people carried the man's body through the streets, firing guns in the air, witnesses said.

Hours earlier, troops shot and killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy as he was trapping birds near Israel's fence with the Gaza Strip, security officials said. The army said it shot at three people near the fence who carried equipment that looked like it might be used to plant a bomb.

Powell's letter was addressed to the main authors of the Geneva Accord, former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.

"Dear Yossi and Yasser," the letter read, according to a copy given to The Associated Press by a Beilin aide. "The U.S. remains committed to the president's two-state vision and to the road map, but we also believe that projects such as yours are important in helping sustain an atmosphere of hope."

"The United States is always encouraged when there is discussion," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday in Washington of Powell's letter.

Responding to questions, Boucher said the Bush administration was not engaged in "some kind of end run around leaders in the region."

Nor, he said, did it undercut the U.S.-backed road map for peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians.

The new plan was drafted by prominent Palestinians and Israelis, including participants in past negotiations. It proposes a Palestinian state on nearly all of the West Bank and Gaza -- land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War. Most Jewish settlers would have to leave their homes.

The proposal would also give Palestinians control of a disputed holy shrine in Jerusalem's walled Old City -- an elevated mosque compound that was once home to the biblical Jewish temples. In return, Palestinians would give up their demand for the "right of return" of about 4 million Palestinian war refugees and their descendants to Israel.

The plan is to be officially launched in Geneva, though no date has been set.

Powell's letter came a week after Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz -- the Pentagon's No. 2 official -- praised another unofficial peace plan drawn up by Sari Nusseibeh, a prominent Palestinian moderate, and Ami Ayalon, former head of Israel's Shin Bet security service.

Sharon has sharply attacked the Israelis involved in the Geneva accord, saying they had no right to go behind the back of the government to make concessions, even in a symbolic deal.

Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher said Powell's letter was a message to Sharon.

"Any positive response from high figures in the (U.S.) administration ought to be understood by Sharon as a warning signal that the administration's blank check support for his policies should not be seen as a given in the future," Alpher said.

"He can't be seen as too hardline with all these other proposals running around," he added.

Meanwhile, a political dispute between Arafat and his prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, appeared to be easing, and Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said that likely clears the way for parliamentary approval of the new government this weekend.

After a late night meeting with the two men and top officials in Arafat's Fatah movement, a Fatah official said they agreed on the appointment of longtime Arafat confidant Hakam Bilawi as interior minister. It was an apparent concession by Qureia, who had insisted for weeks on the appointment of Gen. Nasser Yousef.