President Mahmoud Abbas decreed the Palestinian Authority would take over all the Gaza settlements as the Israelis withdraw under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to disengage from conflict with the Palestinians.
As Israel pressed ahead with a pullout the United States hopes can spur Middle East peacemaking, David Welch, US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, held talks with Mr Abbas in Gaza.
"The president and I discussed a number of issues today. Of course the most important thing for both sides is security," Mr Welch told reporters.
Yesterday Mr Abbas set out his plan for Gaza once the settlers have left and said the settlement of Netzarim would eventually form part of a seaport for Gaza, and thousands of public housing units would be built in Morag.
Mr Abbas has also announced that Palestinian parliamentary elections will be held on January 25th. The elections were initially to have been held in July, but were postponed indefinitely because of Israel's Gaza pullout.
In setting a firm date, Abbas was making a conciliatory gesture to his political rival, Hamas, which is expected to make a strong showing in the vote.
"The parliamentary election will take place in all of the homeland districts on Wednesday, January 25, 2006," Mr Abbas told a "model parliament" of high school students in Gaza City yesterday.
More than 85 per cent of Gaza's settlers have gone, but resistance has been reinforced by ultranationalists like those who made stands last week at Neve Dekalim, the biggest settlement, and Kfar Darom, an outlying religious outpost. Israeli rightists say the pullout is a victory for Palestinian militants, a view echoed by the gunmen, and fear that uprooting Gaza's settlements sets a precedent for further moves out of much bigger Israeli enclaves in the West Bank.
Evacuations have gone more than twice as fast as officials had predicted, but Sanur and Homesh in the West Bank - where many religious Jews feel an even closer biblical bond than in Gaza - are seen as potential flashpoints.