Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians and Israel are embarking on a ?new era? after more than four years of violence, according to a New York Times interview published yesterday. Abbas told the newspaper, in comments that appeared on its Web site, that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who reached a ceasefire deal with the new Palestinian leader at a Feb. 8 summit, is speaking a ?different language?.

He praised Sharon?s plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank this summer as ?a good sign to start with? on the road to peace. ?And now he (Sharon) has a partner,? said Abbas, who was elected on Jan. 9 to replace Yasser Arafat on a platform of non-violence and reviving a US-backed peace ?road map? evisaging the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

<B>Weighing the truce</B>

Abbas said the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, which have pledged to suspend anti-Israeli attacks while weighing the truce, were committed to ?cooling down the whole situation, and I believe we will start a new era?. Both militant factions ?want to come to power if they can? in legislative elections in July, ?and if they win ... it is their right,? he said. ?Now Hamas and Jihad are running for elections, and what does it mean? It means they will be converted in time into political parties,? Abbas said.

Abbas, rejecting the road map?s option of declaring a provisional state before a final settlement, said Sharon spoke to him at the summit ?about the Palestinian independent democratic state? and ?about the occupation, never to be an occupier anymore?. ?So on all these things he was positive, but what we want to know is the implementation on the ground,? Abbas said. In a gesture to Abbas, Israel?s cabinet approved on Sunday the release of 500 Palestinian prisoners and officials said they could go free as early as Wednesday. Another 400 prisoners are slated for release.

?Prisoners, prisoners are our priority, and we told everyone about it,? he said. Israel holds about 8,000 Palestinian prisoners, regarded as heroes by the Palestinian public, but refuses to release those convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis.

Turning to the key issue of Palestinian refugees, Abbas, himself a refugee, called on Israel to lift its blanket rejection of their return to what is now the Jewish state under United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948.