MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Korei has poured scorn on Tony Blair's peace initiative, throwing into doubt a London conference that Israel has already said it will boycott.
He said yesterday he was disappointed with Mr Blair's plan to hold a conference in March that would focus on reforms in the Palestinian Authority.
Both men held talks in the West Bank town of Ramallah yesterday where Mr Blair proposed holding a one-day London conference to promote administrative, economic and security reform the Palestinians need to make before they can reach a peace deal and have an independent state.
New US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would attend.
"We don't need to go to a conference so we can be rehabilitated and trained how to negotiate. We are capable of doing all these things," Mr Korei told his cabinet.
He said the Palestinians had hoped for a wider conference that would deal with the issues of a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
"We are in need of an international conference on peace and not a meeting," Mr Korei said, adding that Mr Blair's view that the Palestinians were unprepared for talks was "unacceptable".
Thousands of Palestinians crammed polling stations in scattered West Bank towns to vote in municipal elections today that were a warm-up for next month's presidential ballot. It was also the first time the ruling Fatah movement and the Islamic militant group Hamas competed for voter support.
Prime Minister Korei, who voted in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis, praised the election in 26 small West Bank municipalities as "the first step toward the establishment of the Palestinian state".
The late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat had been reluctant to allow municipal elections, fearing that Hamas, the largest opposition group, would make a strong showing.
Hamas has grown in popularity during the more than four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, providing social services with its private schools and clinics.
Meanwhile, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired 20 mortar shells at Jewish settlements, injuring an Israeli man.
Most of the shells were fired from the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza, a day after the Israeli military raided the camp to stop the firing.
Later, two people were killed in an explosion in a house in Khan Younis.
Palestinians said the blast was caused by a tank shell, but the army denied it had fired in the area.
Witnesses said the explosion occurred in the middle of the house, which belonged to a Hamas activist, leading to speculation militants inside may - (AP)