06 September 2004	Monday	20 Rajab 1425

HEBRON, Sept 5: Israel began construction work on the southern section of its controversial West Bank separation barrier on Sunday, days after a double suicide bombing from the region.

At least two bulldozers could be seen levelling land around the village of Beit Awwa near the internationally-recognized border between Israel and the West Bank, witnesses said. "Work has begun in the area as planned," a defence ministry spokeswoman.

Sixteen people as well as the two bombers from the Hamas movement were killed on Tuesday in a twin attack on board buses in the southern Israeli city of Beersheva. The militants entered Israel from the main southern West Bank city of Hebron.

Construction work on the barrier had been previously restricted to the north of the Palestinian territory, a strategy which Israeli officials say has contributed to a concentration of militant activity in the south.

Officials said in the aftermath of the suicide attacks that construction would be accelerated in the south, although they insisted the start of work on the section had been decided on some time ago and was not in response to the bus bombings.

The Israeli media had been fiercely critical of the lack of progress in work on the southern section. While Israel insists that the barrier - a montage of concrete, electronic fencing and razor wire - is essential to prevent attacks, the Palestinians say its route shows it has less to do with security than grab their land.

The International Court of Justice has ruled that parts of the barrier built within the West Bank are illegal and should be torn down. The Israeli government has officially vowed to ignore the ICJ's non-binding verdict but it has been reworking the route of the barrier so it comes nearer the so-called Green Line.

Hamas meanwhile was gearing up for elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip next year after boycotting the last Palestinian elections. The smaller Islamic Jihad movement and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) urged followers to sign the electoral roll in a bid to take advantage of disillusionment with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah faction.

"Hamas is asking all the Palestinian people to register to vote in the elections," the organization said in a statement. "We in Hamas regard elections as a way to lay the foundations for a community built on the pillars of freedom, stability and justice," it added.

Palestinian officials announced on Saturday that they planned to hold simultaneous presidential, parliamentary and municipal polls in spring 2005. The Palestinians' only legislative and presidential elections were held in 1996, two years after the launch of limited self-rule as part of the Oslo peace accords.

However, those polls were boycotted by the three groups which rejected the Oslo peace process and are still committed to the creation of a Palestinian state that includes the land of Israel.

Arafat, elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, has come under growing pressure to reform his corruption- plagued administration. In the eight years since the last elections, Hamas' popularity has outstripped that of Arafat's Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip and the Islamic movement is keen to step into any vacuum created by next year's planned pullout of Israeli troops and settlers from the territory.

Polls have also shown it is now running Fatah neck and neck in the larger West Bank. A senior Fatah member, speaking on condition of anonymity, voiced fears that his faction could face an electoral meltdown in Gaza.

"There are real fears that Hamas will sweep the board in Gaza," he said. "Fatah has not prepared at all and we are consumed by internal affairs." Apart from warding off attacks of his administration from the likes of Hamas, Arafat has also come under international pressure to implement reforms.

The veteran leader reacted furiously to comments in July by the UN's special envoy to the region, Terje Roed-Larsen, that he was presiding over a "steadily emerging chaos" and he had shown a "lack of political will" to reform.

Terje-Larsen was subsequently declared persona non grata in the territories by Arafat's camp. But in an apparent bid to mend fences, Arafat phoned Terje Roed-Larsen on Sunday, inviting him for talks at his West Bank headquarters and praising UN peace efforts. -AFP