US plan calls for Gaza security crackdown in June

JERUSALEM, May 4 (Reuters) A US timeline for bolstering Israeli-Palestinian talks asks Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by mid-June to start deploying his forces to halt rocket fire and smuggling by Gaza militants.

The timeline asks Israel to reciprocate by taking several steps to ease the movement of people and goods between the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

These include lifting restrictions in the West Bank starting in mid-May and allowing Palestinian bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank by July 1, according to officials with access to the US government document.

It is unclear how hard the Bush administration is prepared to push the parties to complete the list of so-called ''benchmarks'', which was presented separately to Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week.

Some Israeli officials have raised concerns that Israel was being asked to ease restrictions on Palestinian movements without assurances that Abbas has completed his own commitments on security.

A crackdown by forces loyal to Abbas and his secular Fatah faction could spark a backlash from Hamas's armed wing and other militant groups behind the rocket attacks against Israel.

Fatah, long dominant under the late Yasser Arafat, formed a unity government with the Hamas Islamist movement in March in a bid to stem fierce factional fighting and ease a Western aid embargo imposed after Hamas won parliamentary elections 15 months ago.

But tensions between Hamas and Fatah remain high and the Western ban on direct aid to the Palestinian Authority remains in place, with donors demanding Hamas renounce violence and recognise Israel before they will deal with it.

TIMELINE The US timeline calls on Abbas's security forces by June 1 to form ''joint coordinating cells'' with Israeli and Egyptian forces to bolster security at the border.

By June 15, Abbas would deploy his forces along the Egyptian border, from a key Israeli crossing point to the Mediterranean coast, to stop smuggling and destroy tunnels used by militants.

Under the US timeline, Abbas's national security adviser Mohammad Dahlan, a long-time bitter foe of Hamas, would develop a plan to prevent rocket attacks against Israel and begin deployments under that plan by June 21.

The US document asks Israel to allow the transfer of weapons, ammunition and other equipment for security forces under Abbas's direct control in the West Bank and Gaza.

The timeline calls for stepped up training and equipping of Abbas's forces until the end of this year.

Diplomats said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was committed to the effort despite the hurdles, and that she hoped to draw up a blueprint, or ''rubric'', that both sides would commit to, possibly in writing.

Washington hopes these measures will create conditions for negotiations on a final peace deal, but the obstacles are many.

Olmert, who has agreed to push forward with the benchmarks, is deeply unpopular among Israelis and could be forced out of office over his handling of last year's Lebanon war.

Olmert's government has so far refused to discuss ''final status'' issues with Abbas.

REUTERS SLD HS1416