01 November 2004	Monday	17 Ramazan 1425

AL QUDS, Oct 31: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon signalled on Sunday he was ready to open negotiations with a new Palestinian leadership, as Yasser Arafat's top lieutenants filled the void left by his medical treatment in Paris.

With the Palestinians still struggling to absorb the shockwaves generated by their veteran leader's exit to France for life-saving treatment, Sharon was weighing his options should his arch-enemy's absence prove to be permanent.

Sharon has severed all contact, not only with Arafat but also his more moderate prime minister Ahmed Qorei over what he regards their failure to rein in armed Palestinian militants such as fighters from the Hamas movement.

But with former Palestinian premier Mahmud Abbas now at the helm of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Arafat's Fatah faction, the prospect of a resumption of talks has increased sharply.

"If a new Palestinian leadership which is both serious and responsible emerges, it is possible that there can be a resumption of negotiations on the roadmap" peace plan, Sharon was quoted as telling Israel's weekly cabinet meeting.

"A new leadership must prove by its actions that it is fighting against terrorism," he added, according to official sources.

Abbas and Sharon met on several occasions in mid-2003, during which they established a working, if not exactly warm, relationship.

Avi Dichter, the head of the internal Shin Beth intelligence service, told the cabinet that "contacts" had been made with Palestinian officials about the possibility of militant groups calling a new ceasefire.

Sharon has boycotted the Palestinian leadership since Abbas resigned last September when a simmering row with Arafat over power-sharing boiled over.

The roadmap, which seeks to create a Palestinian state in 2005, has withered in the interim. Instead, Sharon intends to pull Israel out of the Gaza Strip by end-2005 while cementing hold over large Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank.

On Sunday, Abbas also took charge of a Fatah central committee gathering. It was the first time he attended such a meeting in over a year, after patching up his differences with Arafat on a visit to his sickbed last week.

"The situation and circumstances we are passing through dictates to us that we have to move on," Abbas told reporters.

Qorei meanwhile headed up a meeting of the National Security Council, another Arafat-led body, where members took advantage of his absence by trying to implement a long-delayed streamlining of the myriad security services.

"There is no alternative leadership. The Palestinian leadership and Palestinian institutions that have been so active (over the weekend) are the institutions built by President Arafat himself," Qorei told reporters.

Foreign minister Nabil Shaath said the meeting intended "to ensure the security agencies, or organizations will be revamped and given all the support (they need) to fulfil their duties".

He later gave MPs an update on Arafat's health at an emergency session of the Palestinian parliament.

"I have received news from Paris that the president has taken his first meal of cornflakes, tea and milk," he said. "He is alright, he retained it well."

In France, Arafat's top advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina said that the 75-year-old's condition was "curable" as doctors carried out further tests to determine whether he is fit to stay on as the Palestinian Authority's supremo.

Arafat - the symbol of the Palestinian struggle for statehood for 40 years - was dramatically flown to Paris on Friday for urgent medical treatment.

While it has been keeping a close eye on unfolding events in the Palestinian camp, Israel has abstained from naming a preferred candidate to succeed Arafat.

"We do not want a matron who will be the best leader because they will be marked as a collaborator of Israel," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told CNN.

Israel was "looking for a moderate leadership who will meet their commitments in the roadmap" peace plan, which is backed by the international community, Shalom added.

However, Sharon made clear he will not countenance Arafat being buried in Jerusalem, the stated childhood home of the Palestinian leader who wants the holy city to be the capital of a Palestinian state.-AFP