Israeli minister touts plan to speed peace talks

HERZLIYA, Israel, Jan 22 (Reuters) Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz promoted a new peace plan today that would jumpstart talks on Palestinian statehood by giving President Mahmoud Abbas more time to disarm militants.

Peretz, dogged by flagging popularity since a widely criticised war in Lebanon, told a forum of policymakers outside Tel Aviv his Labour Party would soon approve a three-stage plan he unveiled this month, and bring it to Israel's cabinet.

Labour is the second largest party in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has floated a similar plan in meetings with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has called for accelerating peace moves.

''We need to set in motion a new process because deadlock works against us,'' said Peretz, who provided new details of his proposal for a minimum 30-month period of talks to establish a Palestinian state within temporary borders alongside Israel.

Peretz, expanding on a plan he unveiled to his party on January 8, proposed delaying initial requirements under a US-backed peace plan known as the Road Map that the Palestinians disarm militants before negotiations begin.

He suggested that peace talks be launched in tandem with the dismantling of militant groups in a bid to give Abbas, a moderate, more time to build up his security forces. Washington plans to pour more than 86 million dollar into that effort.

''The answers provided by the Road Map are insufficient,'' Peretz said. ''It is entirely clear that first we must strengthen the new Palestinian forces'' so they can fight rival gunmen.

TALKS IN THREE STAGES Peretz's plan calls for three stages of negotiations.

He said the first stage, lasting six months, would include confidence building measures such as widening a nearly two-month ceasefire in Gaza and winning the release of an Israeli soldier held there since June in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

During this initial phase, Israel would dismantle unauthorised Jewish settlement outposts built in the occupied West Bank since March 2001, Peretz said.

Israel has so far failed to meet road map demands for a complete halt to expansion of the settlements. The World Court deems all the settlements built on land Israel captured in a 1967 war as illegal.

Israel disputes this.

A second stage of talks would set principles for a permanent settlement with Abbas for establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel under temporary borders, Peretz said.

Peretz said these principles should be endorsed by an international panel in which he would seek to include moderate Arab states, noting his initiative is based on elements of a Saudi peace initiative.

Peretz also envisages a third stage lasting at least 18 months, in which the sides would negotiate a permanent peace settlement.

Abbas rejects the idea of accepting provisional borders, fearing the Palestinians would be left with a truncated state.

Peretz reiterated that Israel should be willing to negotiate with members of Hamas if they met Western demands to recognise the Jewish state and accept past peace agreements.

''We shouldn't rule out any party,'' he said.

Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, rose to power after winning an election last year, prompting a Western aid boycott that has increased economic hardships and fueled factional fighting in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

REUTERS SP RAI1907