ISRAEL: Mr Colin Powell yesterday urged Israelis and Palestinians to "get started" with the implementation of the road map peace plan, writes Peter Hirschberg in Tel Aviv.
But leaders on both sides used their respective press conferences with the US Secretary of State to outline conditions for moving forward, and intimated that the other side had to take the first step.
There was talk last night, however, of a possible meeting next Friday between the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, and his Palestinian counterpart, Mr Mahmoud Abbas.
Following his talks with Mr Powell, the Israeli prime minister reiterated his demand that the Palestinian Authority launch an uncompromising war on terror groups before Israel would be ready to consider any substantial concessions. "What is needed now are actions that should be taken against the terrorist organisations like the Hamas, Islamic Jihad," Mr Sharon said.
After his meeting with Mr Powell, in Jericho, Mr Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) demanded that Israel drop its reservations regarding the road map - Mr Sharon has submitted 15 such reservations to the US - and accept the blueprint unchanged.
Echoing the Israeli leader, Mr Powell emphasised the need for the Palestinians to dismantle the terror infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Without "rapid, decisive action" to crush armed groups, Mr Powell said after meeting Mr Sharon, "our best efforts will fail".
Sources close to Mr Sharon expressed satisfaction with Mr Powell's emphasis on terror during his visit. Palestinian officials, however, were disappointed with what they said was his failure to extract any meaningful concessions from the Israeli leader. The announcement that Israel was releasing 61 Palestinian security prisoners yesterday - and another 140 by the end of today - was an empty gesture, they said, since most of the prisoners were to be released anyway within the next two weeks.
In Jericho, though, Mr Powell also focused on what Israel had to do to begin implementation of the peace plan, saying restrictions on Palestinian travel and work had to be lifted. Israel had to "ease the lives" of Palestinians and "respect their dignity", he said.
Israeli officials said yesterday the government would implement a number of humanitarian gestures, including easing the movement of goods in the territories and restoring fishing rights off the Gaza coast.
The Americans are keen to boost Mr Abbas, and believe that making life easier for ordinary Palestinians is vital if the new prime minister is to have any chance of convincing residents of Gaza and the West Bank to abandon their support for the intifada.
But overly-enthusiastic US backing for Mr Abbas could paint him as a stooge. Anxious to escape this image, the new prime minister yesterday laid out a string of demands on Israel, including an end to settlements and the assassination of militants, the freeing of security prisoners, and the granting of freedom of movement to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat - who has been holding out in Ramallah for more than a year.
The difficulties facing the road map, and Mr Abbas, were starkly illustrated yesterday when an Israeli - Mr Zion David (53), a father of six - was shot dead in an ambush near the West Bank settlement of Ofra. Both the Fatah movement, headed by Mr Arafat and Mr Abbas, and another radical PLO faction, the Popular Front, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Acutely aware that focusing on the major points of contention between the two sides will consign the road map to an early grave, Mr Powell said yesterday there was "sufficient agreement" on the plan "that we can get started. There will be more than enough time in the future to discuss the more contentious issues. But right now let's get started . . . let's not get distracted by items that can be debated at a later time," he said.
Asked whether he had raised the issue of settlements with Mr Sharon - a settlement freeze and the dismantling of illegal West Bank outposts are part of the first phase of the road map - Mr Powell would only say that he and Mr Sharon had discussed the issue of settlements and illegal outposts, and they would continue to do so.