Palestinian leader Abbas praises U.S. security plan

GAZA, May 7 (Reuters) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today praised a US plan that aims to bolster prospects for renewed peace talks with Israel by setting dates for both sides to take confidence-building steps.

''The American document, which the Palestinian leadership has received, included important steps to achieve security in the Palestinian territories,'' Abbas was quoted as saying by the Palestinian official news agency WAFA.

The plan, Abbas said, was a first step towards ''easing the suffering of the Palestinian people,'' WAFA reported.

The proposal calls for a ''timeline'' for so-called ''benchmark'' moves including a crackdown by Palestinian security forces on rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and an easing of Israeli restrictions on Palestinians.

In new violence, an Israeli aircraft attacked a car carrying an Islamic Jihad rocket-firing squad in the northern Gaza Strip, wounding one of the militants, the group said. Israel has said it would step up military operations to halt rocket launchings.

Islamic Jihad and other militant organisations, including al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Abbas's Fatah faction, urged Abbas to reject the US plan. Israel has also voiced reservations over some aspects of the blueprint.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to prod both sides to carry out the proposed benchmarks during an upcoming visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Rice was due to arrive around May 15 but Israeli and Palestinian officials said the visit would be postponed due to the political crisis threatening Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to comment directly on Rice's travel plans in the Middle East. But he said ''turbulence'' within the Israeli government had prompted Washington to take ''a look at exactly when the right time for her to make a visit to the Israeli and Palestinian areas might be.'' It was not immediately clear when Rice would return.

REJECTED BY MILITANTS ''The U.S. plan is totally rejected. We urge President Mahmoud Abbas not to deal with it because it aims to satisfy Israel's security and cause internal tension among Palestinians,'' said Khaled al-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad leader.

Batsh said Islamic Jihad, which has been behind many of the rocket attacks, would hold a dialogue with Abbas on settling their differences. But he cautioned: ''No one can stop resistance.'' Abbas's aides said he was willing to work with the U.S.

plan, albeit with amendments. They accused Israel of torpedoing the plan.

Olmert's office said he recognised the ''significance of taking trust-building steps to show the Palestinian civilian population that a change is taking place''.

Western diplomats said they expected Israel to agree to some of the steps in the plan and to try to negotiate changes to others.

Israel has called the proposal positive but said it could not commit to some of the benchmarks, which include removing several military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank, because of security concerns.

Hamas, which leads a Palestinian unity government, has like the other militant groups rejected the US plan, under which Abbas would start deploying his Fatah-dominated forces by mid-June to halt rocket fire and smuggling by Gaza militants.

REUTERS RS RK2245