Palestinian Praises Abbas-Bush Meeting

A top Palestinian official on Saturday called a weekend meeting between Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and President Bush a success and urged Israel to move quickly to implement a U.S.-backed Mideast peace plan.

Information Minister Nabil Amr also called on Israel to release more Palestinian prisoners and said the Palestinian Authority is ready to take over West Bank cities still under Israeli control.

“I consider this visit as a successful one, and I do hope the Israelis will fulfill their commitments,” Amr said. “It’s not easy to solve all these problems in just one visit to Washington.”

Israeli media reports Saturday said the government was preparing to release more Palestinian militants from prison, a key demand of the Palestinians, but the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would not confirm that.

As Abbas met with Bush in Washington on Friday, Israel announced that it would transfer two West Bank towns to Palestinian control and remove three roadblocks in Palestinian areas.

An Israeli army spokesman said Saturday that the troop pullouts would not be announced in advance. The cities to be handed over and the timing are to be discussed at a meeting between the Israeli defense minister and his Palestinian Authority counterpart within days. Israeli media reports said one of them would be Jericho.

Further hand-overs of cities and the dismantling of roadblocks are among moves demanded by the Palestinian Authority as important steps in implementing the “road map” to peace.

So far, Israel has pulled troops out of parts of the Gaza Strip and from the West Bank town of Bethlehem, but it has been reluctant to do more unless the Palestinian Authority cracks down on extremist groups. The peace plan calls for disarming them, but Abbas has refused to try to do that by force.

The Palestinians are pushing for a mass release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Israel has released 250, and media reports Saturday said Sharon would present a plan to his Cabinet today to release several hundred more, including 100 members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad extremist groups.

Amr said he hoped to see more than 600 prisoners freed soon. Israel refuses to free anyone directly involved in attacks that have killed hundreds of Israelis over the last three years.

Bush, who expressed support for Abbas after their meeting, is to meet with Sharon in Washington on Tuesday.

Abbas is under political pressure to win Israeli concessions to generate Palestinian public support for the peace plan.