MIDDLE EAST: The difficulties that will be faced trying to implement the new Middle East peace plan were immediately evident yesterday, with the militant Hamas group rejecting it, and declaring it would persist with its suicide bombing campaign.
"The road map aims to assure security for Israel at the expense of the security of our people. It is a plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause. It is rejected by us," said Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, an armed group associated with new Palestinian Prime Minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, admitted responsibility for the suicide bomb attack, along with Hamas. In the attack, less than 24 hours earlier, the bomber - disclosed last night to have entered Israel on a British passport - killed himself and murdered three people in Tel Aviv.
A spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs said the bombing was a message to Mr Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, that "nobody can disarm the resistance movements without a political solution". Cracking down on militants is one of the first steps the road map demands of the Palestinians. The plan, which was drafted by the Quartet - made up of the US, EU, UN and Russia - also calls for Israel to withdraw its army from Palestinian towns and dismantle Jewish settlement outposts that have been set up in the West Bank since Mr Ariel Sharon took office in 2001.
The road map, which also calls for an overall settlement freeze, stipulates the creation of a Palestinian state with provisional borders by the end of the year, and full statehood within three years.
There was no official comment from Mr Sharon after he received the plan, but Israel plans to submit up to 15 reservations to the US.
"We've made our observations known to the United States as to how we view the road map," said Mr Mark Sofer, a foreign ministry spokesman.
Abu Mazen, who on Tuesday signalled his intention to curb violence by militant Palestinian groups, said the Palestinians accepted the road map. He added that he would not countenance Israel's desire to alter it.
Abu Mazen took the oath yesterday as the first Palestinian Prime Minister, in front of the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, at the Palestinian leader's compound in Ramallah.
US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell, who spoke by telephone yesterday to Mr Sharon and Abu Mazen, will be in the region next Thursday for talks with both men.
Meanwhile, four Palestinians were shot dead by the Israeli army yesterday, two as they tried to infiltrate a settlement in the West Bank. A Palestinian civilian was shot dead near another West Bank settlement by a security guard who mistook him for a militant.
In Gaza, troops shot dead a 60-year-old man. The army said he had entered an off-limits area.