New Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he is close to a deal with militants to cease attacks on Israelis, a step needed to relaunch Middle East peacemaking. “The dialogue is making very good progress. The differences have narrowed greatly and therefore I can say that we are bound to reach an agreement very soon,” Abbas, elected on January 9 to replace Yasser Arafat, told Palestine TV on Sunday. Relative quiet has taken hold in Gaza since Abbas began trying to swing gunmen behind his agenda of non-violence and “national dialogue” in which militant groups would participate in a Palestinian legislative election in July. But Israel and the militant factions, including some dedicated to its destruction, have avoided going first in declaring a ceasefire.

“As things stand now, I cannot say that an agreement has been achieved, but God-willing it should come,” said Abbas, who sent 2,000 paramilitary security police into the north half of Gaza on Friday with orders to stop militants targeting Israelis. He stressed Israel had “many responsibilities” to carry out for a truce to work, including ending raids to detain wanted militants and releasing Palestinian prisoners. Israel said it was ready to suspend military operations if calm proved durable.

Palestinian militant leaders signalled they would agree to maintain calm in Gaza for at least a month, but denied Israeli accounts they had committed to a formal ceasefire. “We are ready to study the issue of a truce seriously, but at the same time, there is no ceasefire without a price,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. “There can be no truce without clear Israeli commitments to stop all forms of aggression against our Palestinian people and fulfil all (our) demands ... foremostly, the release of prisoners,” he said.

An end to more than four years of bloodshed is a key to reviving a US-backed “road map” charting peace negotiations and reciprocal moves towards the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. But pointing to a long road ahead to a final peace treaty, Zalman Shoval, a senior aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said only an interim deal was possible for now because Abbas, like Arafat, wanted Israel to quit all of the West Bank. Palestinians demand a viable state on all of the land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel, which intends to pull out of occupied Gaza later this year, says it would be unrealistic to expect it to give up large settlement blocs in the West Bank, a position backed by Washington.

In a further sign of a lull in violence, Sharon held a cabinet meeting on Sunday in Sderot, a southern Israeli town that had been frequently hit by rocket fire from nearby Gaza until a few days ago. “There is now calm. We don’t know if this is a genuine change yet. We hope so. But one thing is clear – if terrorism resumes, we will act (militarily),” said Sharon.

Nidal AL-MUGHRABI