RAMALLAH, Oct 28: Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei has agreed to stay on as head of an enlarged government after the end of his emergency cabinet’s one-month tenure, foreign minister Nabil Shaath said on Tuesday.

Qorei himself however was more circumspect, merely saying that “if things stay as they are there will be no problem.”

Shaath told reporters after a meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah of the mainstream Fatah organisation’s central committee that Qorei, also known as Abu Alaa, would soon present his new government to the Palestinian parliament for approval.

“Abu Alaa has agreed to form an enlarged government and he will present it to parliament at the end of the current cabinet’s mandate,” he said after the meeting here which was chaired by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Qorei was sworn in by Arafat as the head of a one-month emergency cabinet on October 7.

Shaath said that the current eight-man cabinet would form the nucleus of the enlarged government to be presented to the Palestinian parliament for approval.

“The central committee examined the formation of an enlarged government and president Arafat gave Abu Alaa the responsibility of creating it,” said Shaath.

“Abu Amaar (Arafat) and the central committee were unanimous in their support for Abu Alaa,” he added.

Since he took up the post, Qorei has been blowing hot and cold over whether he would agree to stay on as prime minister.

He said on October 13 that he was “more inclined not” to stay in the post in the wake of a row over the post of interior minister, with Arafat blocking moves to install Nasr Yussef in the key post.

But he gave a strong hint on Monday that he would continue, emphasising the need for “stability”.

Yussef appeared alongside Qorei on Tuesday as the pair left the premier’s offices in Ramallah.

Asked if it meant that Yussef would now become interior minister, Qorei said: “He has come to pay me a visit.”

MPs have claimed that while the Palestinian constitution gives Arafat the right to declare a state of emergency, it does not allow him to install an emergency government without their approval.

Qorei, the former speaker of the Palestinian parliament, replaced Mahmud Abbas, who resigned as premier in September after a bitter battle with Arafat over control of the multi-branch Palestinian security apparatus.

Israel, which froze all contacts with the Palestinians after a massive suicide bus bombing in Jerusalem on August 19, has said it will not talk with Qorei until he acts against armed factions such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Qorei has identified the securing of a mutual ceasefire with Israel as his government’s top priority.—AFP