Israel mulls plan to ease security in West Bank

JERUSALEM -- Israel is considering a plan to stop pursuing scores of Fatah militants and give Palestinians wider security control over West Bank enclaves to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas, officials and diplomats said yesterday.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said talks were underway on the security arrangements, part of which would "end the hunt for these people which the Israelis deem as wanted."

Leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Abbas's secular Fatah faction, said they were informed by Abbas's security forces that Israel was prepared to give reprieves to nearly 180 militants in the occupied West Bank if they agreed not to carry out attacks against Israelis.

The office of the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, had no immediate comment on the talks, but a government official familiar with the deliberations said, "This is something we're considering."

An Israeli government official said Olmert planned to meet with Abbas tomorrow.

Salam Fayyad, whom Abbas appointed prime minister after he dismissed a Hamas-led Cabinet last month, has pledged to crack down on militants in the West Bank but said success hinged on Israel agreeing to stop pursuing the gunmen.

Palestinian security forces, dominated by Fatah, have been searching for Hamas militants in the West Bank since Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip a month ago.

Abbas consolidated his control of the West Bank last week, installing an interim government of moderates to lead indefinitely. Hamas called a special session of the Palestinian Parliament for today to challenge the new government.

Western diplomats said the security proposal called for Israel to give Abbas's forces greater security control over some Palestinian population centers.