RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Bringing reform efforts to a temporary halt, Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction abandoned the idea of prodding the Palestinian leader to relinquish some power by appointing a prime minister, officials said Wednesday.\nThe Fatah campaign had been the most serious political challenge in years to Arafat's autocratic rule. It was cut short by Israel's 10-day siege of Arafat's compound, which ended earlier this week under intense U.S. pressure and which was seen as boosting support for the Palestinian leader.\nBefore the siege, Fatah had been pushing for the appointment of a prime minister who would run the day-to-day affairs of government.\nDuring a meeting of Fatah's Central Committee with Arafat late Tuesday, one of those present raised the issue, but it was then dropped, Planning Minister Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah member, said Wednesday.\n"The consensus of the members is that the prime minister should be appointed after the establishment of a Palestinian state and drafting a constitution," Shaath said.\nArafat described as a "catastrophe" U.S. legislation signed by President Bush that encourages recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "I am asking the American administration and the American president to stop this," Arafat told reporters at his largely demolished compound.\nIsraeli explosives experts defused a pipe bomb at a gas station in the northern Israeli town of Afula. In the West Bank village of Tamoun, Israeli troops blew up the two-story home of an activist in the militant Islamic Jihad group who was responsible for a deadly shooting attack on a Jewish settlement. Fifteen people were made homeless in the demolition, witnesses said.\nAlso Wednesday, Israeli officials shrugged off an admonition by British Prime Minister Tony Blair that U.N. resolutions have to be respected, whether they apply to Iraq or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\nPalestinians have long complained about Israel's noncompliance with resolutions, calling on it to withdraw from land it occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.\nAddressing a conference of his Labor Party, Blair expressed support for the creation of a Palestinian state "based on the boundaries of 1967."\nResponding to Blair, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Wednesday that Palestinian statehood is inevitable, but that only negotiations will lead to its creation. "No amount of international pressure will bring about the formation of a Palestinian state," Ben-Eliezer said.\nPalestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said Blair's call was too vague. "I think it's good for Prime Minister Blair to say that even Israel needs to implement Security Council resolutions," Erekat said. "What we need to see from Mr. Blair is to specify the mechanism and timeline (for an Israeli withdrawal)."\nLast week, the U.N. Security Council demanded that Israel end its siege of Arafat's headquarters and withdraw troops from Palestinian cities. Soldiers pulled out of the Ramallah complex on Sunday, but stayed in the town.\nSince then, troops have taken over two eight-story buildings overlooking Arafat's compound. Troops also set up position at the gate, monitoring those entering and leaving.\nArafat complained Wednesday that the pullback was incomplete, and that soldiers were still patrolling nearby. His adviser, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, said soldiers had their weapons trained at those inside the compound and that Israel is "trying to avoid the U.N. resolution rather than implement directly."\nA group of Palestinian artists on Wednesday began painting a mural on one side of Arafat's office building, using the colors of the Palestinian flag -- black, red, green and white. "We will build our house," read a slogan under the mural.\nIn another development, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently held a secret meeting on reviving peace talks with a senior Palestinian leader in the Gulf state of Qatar, an Israeli government official said.\nThe official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli at the meeting was Ephraim Halevy, who was the head of the Mossad spy service until recently and is now a Sharon adviser and head of the National Security Council.\nThe official refused to name the Palestinian at the talks, though the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported it was Mahmoud Abbas, Arafat's deputy in the Palestine Liberation Organization and a leading peace negotiator. However, Abbas denied he met Halevy.\n"I didn't meet Halevy or any other Israeli official," Abbas said while on a trip to Moscow. "The intention of such rumors and false leaks is to give the impression that things between the two sides are going well, which is not true."\nArafat confirmed Wednesday that he has asked for an additional three weeks for appointing a new Cabinet. On Sept. 12, as part of the brewing rebellion against him, the Palestinian legislature forced his Cabinet to resign, amid complaints of mismanagement and corruption.\nTwo major backers of the reform campaign were absent from the meeting. Abbas, who had been Fatah's candidate for prime minister, was abroad, while Palestinian Cabinet Speaker Ahmed Qureia cited prior engagements.
Palestinian faction drops challenge
Fatah group will not ask Arafat to relinquish any power
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