WASHINGTON, March 18: US Secretary of State of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday the Palestinian parliament’s vote ratifying the post of prime minister was a positive step but he would have preferred to see it given greater authority.

“We would have preferred to see even greater authority vested in a prime minister but it is nevertheless a positive step,” Powell told a small group of reporters.

The Palestinian parliament ratified the new post after rebuffing President Yasser Arafat’s bid to keep powers seen as impeding reforms sought by US-led peace brokers.

The 69-1 vote eroded Arafat’s political dominance, stripping him of the authority to approve cabinet members who will serve under the new prime minister, expected to be Mahmoud Abbas, a leading moderate.

But Arafat’s retention of ultimate control over security and peacemaking may clash with a US-backed “road map” for Middle East peace, which US President George W. Bush has pledged to unveil once a premier with “real authority” takes office.

“We have been disappointed in President Arafat’s leadership and (have) said so clearly,” Mr Powell said.

“The greatest disappointment has been in the area of security, ending the violence, and so there is a disappointment that portfolio seems to remain wholly in the hands of Chairman Arafat,” he added. “Having said that we do have a prime minister emerging, with authority given to him by the legislature. We’ll see how that authority is used.”

pacifists teargassed: Israeli troops fired teargas at Western and Palestinian peace activists in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as they tried to put flowers on the spot where an Israeli army bulldozer crushed to death a US pacifist, witnesses said.

Several hundred people, including 30 International Solidarity Movement members, carried flowers and a tree to be planted at the spot in Rafah, close to the Israeli-controlled border, where Rachel Corrie was killed on Sunday as she tried to prevent army bulldozers from destroying Palestinian houses.

As they gathered in the flashpoint area, seven tanks and a bulldozers moved toward them, witnesses said. Several people approached the tanks and put flowers on them.

Soldiers responded by firing tear gas and dispersing the crowd.

Ten people, including two Western activists, were treated at Rafah hospital for teargas inhalation, medics said.

Washington has demanded the army probe the death of Corrie, who was standing in front of a bulldozer which ran over her and crushed her.

The peace activists accused the army of deliberately killing her, while the army said it was an accident and has taken no action against the bulldozer driver.—AFP