Limits on Palestinians may be eased

JERUSALEM -- Israeli officials said yesterday that they were prepared to remove soldiers and military checkpoints from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to make it easier for voters to take part in the Palestinian presidential election, slated for Jan. 9.

Israel warned, however, that it would reinstate restrictions on Palestinian travel if militants used the eased limits on movement to attack Israelis.

''We will make certain to expedite the conduct of free elections, so everyone can vote freely," said Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel. ''The last thing that is going to affect them [are] Israeli tank barrels or Israeli soldiers."

The logistics of the scheduled Palestinian election are expected to dominate a brief visit by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who is to meet separately today with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Palestinian leaders want Powell to pressure Israel to ease restrictions on Palestinian movement.

Powell told reporters en route to Jerusalem that he would reiterate what President Bush has said -- ''that this is a great moment of opportunity for the Palestinian people."

''I've been urging both sides to do everything they can to make sure that this election comes off and that the maximum number of Palestinians get the opportunity to participate in the election," Powell said.

''Perhaps the things they do will in turn show the degree of cooperation that can spread into other areas," he said.

In preparation for Powell's visit, Assistant Secretary of State William Burns met yesterday in the West Bank city of Ramallah with the top three Palestinian officials: Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization; Rauhi Fattouh, interim Palestinian Authority president; and Ahmed Qurei, the prime minister.

''We all know that there are many challenges and obstacles on the road ahead. The US is determined to do everything we can to help overcome them," Burns said after his meeting with Fattouh.

Israel has said it is in the interest of national security to make sure the election to replace Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority president produces a legitimate leader, and possible negotiating partner. Israeli authorities also have signaled that they will allow Palestinians living in Jerusalem to cast ballots, though no formal decision has been announced.

Powell's visit, occurring after he announced plans to leave his government post, is aimed at reviving the diplomatic initiative known as the ''road map," which envisions a Palestinian state by the end of 2005. That blueprint, sponsored by the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations, stalled shortly after it was unveiled last year amid violence and failures by Israel and the Palestinians to fulfill key parts of the plan.

Foreign Minister Jack Straw of Britain and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia also plan visits to Israel soon.

After Arafat's death Nov. 11 in a hospital near Paris, Bush said there was a ''great chance" to establish a Palestinian state, and vowed to try to achieve that before leaving office in 2009.

Qurei favors a timetable that preserves the road map's stated goal of Palestinian statehood by the end of next year.

Preparations for the January vote moved forward as a key leadership committee of Fatah, the dominant faction of the PLO, met to begin deliberations on a nominee for the presidency.

Abbas, who was Arafat's longtime deputy in the PLO, was expected to be selected as the Fatah candidate during a meeting of the group's central committee yesterday.

Some Palestinians who want jailed Fatah activist Marwan Barghouti to run for president said they might mount a challenge to Abbas within the PLO's larger Revolutionary Council, which has more young, reform-minded members.

Barghouti, serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison in connection with the deaths of five people, is popular among Palestinians. Associates said yesterday that he was still deciding whether to run, perhaps from behind bars.