MIDDLE EAST: The interim Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Korei, who only reluctantly accepted the temporary post, indicated yesterday that he was willing to take the job permanently, and has begun contacts with the aim of naming a long-term coalition next week.
Mr Korei was formally asked yesterday by Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to accept the permanent position and indicated his assent, according to the Palestinian Foreign Minister, Nabil Sha'ath.
One of the disputes that, just days ago, had prompted Mr Korei to ask Mr Arafat to relieve him of the responsibility has apparently been resolved. Mr Arafat has withdrawn his opposition to the appointment of Nasser Yussuf, Mr Korei's choice as interior minister, with responsibility for the Palestinian security forces. Still unresolved, however, is whether Mr Arafat will concede full authority for the security forces to Mr Korei and Mr Yussuf.
Israel and the US have indicated that they will have no substantive dealings with a Palestinian government in which Mr Arafat, whom they accuse of encouraging terrorism, retains overall security control.
Mr Korei has urged Hamas, Islamic Jihad and groups affiliated with his and Mr Arafat's Fatah faction to halt suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians, and the Hamas leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, intimated yesterday that he was prepared to consider an Intifada ceasefire. He said efforts were being made to arrange talks between Hamas representatives and Mr Korei's officials. The sheikh added, however, that Hamas would reserve the right to respond to "Israeli crimes". A temporary ceasefire collapsed earlier this summer when Hamas resumed suicide bombings, insisting that it was responding to the killings of several of its members in clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank.
In the Tulkarm area yesterday, plainclothes Israeli troops shot dead Ibrahim al-Naneesh (37), a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, whom it alleged was involved in several attacks on Israeli civilians. The Israeli army said he was killed in an exchange of fire as the undercover unit closed in on him in an unmarked car. Palestinian witnesses said he was armed but had not opened fire on the soldiers.
Meanwhile, a day after Hizbollah gunmen injured an Israeli soldier with cross-border fire at Israeli positions on the border with Lebanon, drawing retaliatory Israeli air strikes and artillery fire, Israel's Defence Minister, Shaul Mofaz, claimed to have received intelligence information that Hizbollah was "planning a more significant attack", and Israeli officials urged the Lebanese and Syrian governments to rein in the gunmen. Gen Benny Gantz, the senior army commander on the northern border, said Israel would respond to such an attack with "very, very strong force. It would be better to be an Israeli citizen rather than a Lebanese citizen."