RAMALLAH, Nov 1: Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said on Saturday he was willing to take up Israeli leader Ariel Sharon’s offer to meet for talks on reviving the stalled US-backed roadmap.
In fresh violence, a Palestinian motorcyclist died in hospital after being shot by Israeli soldiers at a roadblock near the West Bank city of Nablus.
Mr Qorei, trying to complete the formation of a government to replace an emergency cabinet whose 30-day term expires on Tuesday, said no date has been set for such a session.
Asked about the possibility he would hold talks with Mr Sharon, Mr Qorei told reporters: “We are not against (it).”
Ariel Sharon said on Thursday he was ready to negotiate with Ahmed Qorei once the Palestinian prime minister — locked in dispute with President Yasser Arafat over the composition of the cabinet and security powers — consolidated his position.
The premier’s offer appeared to signal a softening in Israel’s position. After Yasser Arafat nominated Mr Qorei as prime minister in September, Israel suggested it would not deal with him because it saw him as Mr Arafat’s lackey.
Israel says Yasser Arafat incites militant attacks on Israelis, a charge he denies.
Persistent violence during the three-year-old Palestinian uprising and the failure of both sides to meet key commitments have stalled the roadmap the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations presented in April.
The plan calls for an end to bloodshed and the start of confidence-building measures, such as a Palestinian crackdown on militants and a freeze in Jewish settlement expansion, leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005.
Militant groups, sworn to destroying Israel, have rejected the roadmap.
SHOT DEAD: A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops in the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday, Palestinian security and hospital sources said.
Mohammed Hammad, 23, was shot in the chest by an Israeli patrol as he rode his motorbike in the city’s Askar refugee camp, a security source said.
Officials at the city’s main hospital mortuary said they had Hammad’s body.
A spokesman for the Israeli army confirmed its troops had fired on Hammad after he had ignored a no entry sign for vehicles but denied they had delivered the fatal shot.
“Soldiers on a routine patrol in the camp ordered him to stop his motorbike but he rode off. They fired warning shots in the air and then fired at his legs, grazing him slightly,” the spokesman said.
“After checking the man’s identity — Mohammed Hammad — they offered to escort him home in an ambulance, but he said he wanted to go under his own steam and we have no idea what happened to him afterwards.” —Agencies