Qorei holds talks to cement support for new govt

Qorei met representatives from the high committee of national and Islamic groups, a body which includes the hardline Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, Palestinian sources said.

Islamic Jihad officials were at the meeting but Hamas representatives could not be seen, according to an AFP correspondent outside the venue.

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Their leaders have gone into hiding after Israel launched an all-out war against the groups, mounting a series of air strikes in Gaza.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Mohammed al-Hindi confirmed that his group "will not participate" in the government but welcomed the opportunity to hold talks with Qorei.

Qorei, who is also known as Abu Ala, earlier met here with local members of the Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and was also expected to hold talks with local members of the Palestinian parliament.

He was nominated by Arafat two weeks to succeed Mahmud Abbas as Palestinian prime minister.

Abu Ala has been seeking to cement support from across the spectrum to avoid the fate of Abbas who quit after a power struggle with Arafat.

Meanwhile, the top Israeli minister who said it would be an option for Yasser Arafat to be killed insisted Saturday that the Palestinian leader should not have "immunity" from reprisals.

Amidst international controversy over Israel's threat to expel Arafat from his West Bank base, Ehud Olmert, Israel's deputy prime minister and trade minister, told a Washington conference on the Middle East that Arafat was "responsible for terror" and should be accountable for his actions.

After the Israeli security cabinet agreed on September 11 to "remove" Arafat, Olmert intensified the international condemnation last week by saying that "liquidation" was also possible.

Olmert has since qualified his comments by stating that killing Arafat was only an option, not that it was being considered. But he took the Palestinian Authority leader in his sights again at the conference organised by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Olmert said many people around the world now accept that "Arafat is now the single stumbling block" to peace and that he "sabotaged" the government of Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas and had "inspired" and financed "terrorist action against Israel".

"Does he deserve to entertain immunity?" said the deputy to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"Do we have to wait for more Israelis to be killed, brutally murdered in our cities, more fathers and daughters butchered on the eve of weddings, before we point the finger at the person who can stop it," Olmert said.

Arafat was defended by Nabil Abil, the Palestinian information minister, who warned that Palestinians would respond to any "aggression" against the leader with "counter results".

"Yasser Arafat is an elected leader of the Palestinian people. He is not the one giving orders for the killing of children. Stop this propaganda," Abil replied before the audience of US government officials, foreign diplomats and academics.