The United States has called for quick confirmation of a Palestiniancabinet and vowed to put its "shoulder to the wheel" toimplement a long-delayed Middle East peace plan.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Mr Mahmoud Abbas, his prime minister-designate, agreed on the makeup of a reform cabinet, defusing a power struggle that has held up a new "road map" aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The next step would be the submission of the cabinet tothe Palestinian legislature and they would need to quicklyapprove it," White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said. "We see no need for that to take any length of time."
Confirmation would trigger release of the "road map" peaceplan proposed by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
A senior Arafat aide said that under the cabinet deal,Mr Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, would also serve as interior minister while Mr Mohammed Dahlan, the powerful former Gaza security chief, would be in charge of security affairs.
The "road map" envisions a number of measures, including a halt to Palestinian violence and an end to Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and Gaza, paving the way for Palestinian statehood in the two territories by 2005.
Mr Fleischer warned, however: "As much as the United States will be there with our shoulder to the wheel to help make this happen . . . it still in the end is up to the Israelis and the Palestinians to work together on agreement about the terms of the road map to make it meaningful progress".