AL QUDS: Palestinian officials pressed ahead with plans for presidential and parliamentary elections as Israeli forces launched a new raid into Jenin refugee camp, the scene of the heaviest fighting in last month’s military offensive.

The electoral moves follow pressure from the US, Israel and the EU — as well as from Palestinians themselves — for the reform of the corruption-riddled administration of Yasser Arafat.

On Wednesday Mr Arafat promised a thorough overhaul of the Palestinian Authority and free elections, but without setting a timetable. Palestinian officials now say elections are planned within six months, provided that Israeli troops pull back to the positions they held before the outbreak of the intifada. That would require the removal of dozens of more recent checkpoints.

The Palestinian planning minister, Nabil Shaath, said yesterday that work had already begun to compile lists of about 1.6 million Palestinians who are eligible to vote.

The central elections committee is also expected to start work at the weekend, officials said. According to the Palestinian bureau of statistics, the electoral lists will take about two months to complete. Earlier yesterday, Mr Arafat had appeared to rule out swift elections when he said they would take place “as soon as we will finish this occupation [of] our land”.

But Mr Shaath later made clear that the Palestinian leader was not demanding a total end to the occupation before voting could take place.

“These elections need an Israeli withdrawal to the places [that Israeli troops held] before September 28 2000,” Mr Shaath said.

The Palestinians’ first presidential and parliamentary elections were held in 1996. New elections were due in 1999 when the interim Oslo agreement with Israel was due to have been replaced by a permanent agreement. But in the absence of a permanent agreement, no elections were held.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.