Abbas to reform security forces in return for international aid

THE Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, yesterday pledged to make wide-ranging reforms of his tangled security forces and to hunt for those behind last week’s Tel Aviv’s suicide bomb in a move to further bolster Middle East peace.

The vow came yesterday at a global conference on Palestine security held in London, hosted by Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and attended by Condoleezza Rice, the United States Secretary of State.

In return, the international community promised to help Mr Abbas’s efforts and announced a new US-led security group to help oversee security reforms.

Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian finance minister, said donor nations promised the Palestinian Authority $1.2 billion € (620 million) for 2005. The sum "is more than was pledged before, and even more is expected," Mr Fayyad said.

Mr Blair said the one-day meeting set out the "practical steps needed" to create a viable Palestinian state in the future.

"What we have today is an agreement - not just on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which has got to usher in such a state, but also on behalf of the whole of the international community - as to the practical steps, the foundation stones necessary to create that viable state," he said.

Mr Abbas reaffirmed the Palestinians’ commitment to reform in three key areas: governance, security and economic development. He also condemned last Friday’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, saying: "We assure you that we have begun taking a series of actions to find the saboteurs and those responsible for this operation, and are chasing them down and punishing then."

The conference brought together an array of international figures including Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, and senior Arab and European figures. Israel did not attend, but Silvan Shalom, the Israeli foreign minister, said that unless Mr Abbas took action to dismantle militant groups, peace efforts would be stymied. "As long as they do not take the strategic decision to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, we cannot make real progress toward peace," he told Israeli Army Radio. "No economic assistance will help as long as the area remains one of violence."

The Palestinian Authority said it would streamline its competing security and intelligence services to three branches, consider appointing a chief of police and increase police presence on the streets of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as trying to liaise closely with Israeli security forces.

The international community pledged to set up a security co-ordinating group led by Lt Gen William Ward, the US security co-ordinator for the region.

The Palestinian Authority said it would hold local elections by the end of the year, appoint independent judges and prosecutors and build independent courts, police stations and prisons. It also promised to create an independent body to manage the handover of lands and properties when Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

The World Bank and the European Commission will play a co-ordinating role for economic development of Palestinian areas impoverished after years of fighting Israel.

The conference aimed to build on an improvement in the atmosphere since the death of Yasser Arafat last November and the election of Mr Abbas last month.