GAZA CITY, July 10: The Palestinian leadership on Thursday sought to present a united front by insisting the Israelis release more prisoners and by pledging support for embattled prime minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan said he would call for the freedom of all the estimated 6,000 detainees in Israeli prisons at an upcoming meeting with Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz.

Israel has so far considered the release of just 350 detainees.

“This meeting aims to complete the implementation of what had been agreed upon about the (Israeli troop) withdrawals, especially from the West Bank, but the main issue is the prisoners,” Dahlan told reporters in Gaza City.

“The Palestinian position is still that we are asking for the release of all our prisoners.”

The meeting was due to take place on Thursday evening, but Mr Dahlan said it had been “delayed for several hours because of a difference between us and the Israelis about the venue”.

Mr Abbas, who is spearheading the Palestinian peace negotiations with the Israelis, had come under fire over his moderate approach especially on the prisoners issue.

But his offer to resign from the central committee of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah group has been unanimously rejected and foreign minister Nabil Shaath played down talk Thursday of a major split in the leadership.

“I think that the threat has passed. His resignation was unanimously rejected and he is still in his post,” Shaath said in Beijing where he was meeting his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing.

Mofaz also said that the divisions within the Palestinian camp would not be allowed to detract from the dialogue.

“There will be other crises in the talks with the government of Abu Mazen (Abbas’ nom de guerre) but the negotiations will continue,” he told the Yediot Aharonot daily.

“There is reason to think that we are making progress.”

Meanwhile, an Egyptian military delegation was assured by radical groups which they helped persuade late last month to call a three-month halt to anti-Israeli attacks that they remained committed to the truce.

Senior members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah made their pledge after a joint meeting here with a military team headed by General Mustafa al-Buheeri that also met with Dahlan. —AFP