Israel, Palestinians narrowing security differences: Powell

Powell made his remarks after talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom at the start of a round of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials in efforts to boost the flagging peace process.

Security officials from both sides met Thursday night without reaching an accord on a pullout of Israeli troops from parts of the Gaza Strip and the transfer of policing authority to the Palestinians.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

But Powell said: "Although we do not yet have a final answer as to how we will manage the Gaza turnover of security, the conversations have been serious.

"The issues, I think, are being reduced in number and the differences are being narrowed," he told reporters before heading off for a meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.

Powell arrived in Jerusalem amid so-far unsuccessful efforts to bring Islamic militants on board a ceasefire deal. But he and Shalom agreed a truce was not enough and that groups such as Hamas must be stripped of their armed capacity.

"A ceasefire is a ticking bomb. Ceasefire for (the) long-term is not acceptable," said Shalom, adding that a dismantling of the militants' armed wing was "a fundamental condition for any future progress".

Powell, seeking to advance implementation of a US-backed "roadmap" for peace approved by both sides at a June 4 summit in Aqaba, Jordan, said they had to seize the "window that has been provided... to keep moving forward."

They must also "blast through those who would try to stop it (the roadmap process), those who would keep us from our goal of peace through acts of violence and terror", he said.

Citing Israeli moves to free Palestinian prisoners and to start dismantling some Jewish settlement outposts in the occupied territories, Powell praised the Israelis for "their energy and their efforts to meet those commitments" they made at Aqaba.

Powell said that when he meets later in the day with Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas, he would stress the need to go beyond a truce with the militants and focus on ways to "end their potential for violence".

Meanwhile, the radical movement Hamas rejected calls from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday for the disarming of Palestinian militants.

"The threats from Sharon and Secretary of State Colin Powell show that Israel and the United States want to limit the Palestinian government's role to ensuring the Zionist entity's security," Hamas official Ismail Haniye told AFP.

The official stressed "the legitimate right of the Palestinians to resist" Israeli occupation.

"That's what the Palestinian factions have explained to the Palestinian prime minister" Mahmud Abbas in talks held in Gaza City on Wednesday and Thursday, he said.

Sharon, at a joint press conference with Powell after talks in Jerusalem, said he expected the Palestinian government to make "genuine" efforts to disarm and dismantle Islamic militant groups if the peace process is to move forward.

"So long as there is terror, there will be no political process," he said.

The prime minister called on his Palestinian counterpart to wage a "genuine" struggle against the radical groups to disarm, punish them and dismantle their infrastructure.

For his part, Powell called on Abbas to implement "very quickly" reforms of the Palestinian security services.