RAMALLAH, Nov 8: Palestinians reached a compromise for a new government on Saturday under which security powers, key to a US-backed peace plan, will be in the hands of a council controlled by President Yasser Arafat.

Prime Minister Ahmed Qorie agreed to the deal after being blocked in his efforts to transfer those powers to an interior minister of his choice, pro-reform Gen Nasser Yousef.

Arafat’s dominant parliamentary faction Fatah rejected on Friday Gen Yousef and instead nominated loyalist Hakam Balawi for the post. But Qorie said Arafat agreed to cede control of security forces from the portfolio to a national council.

“The interior minister will most likely be Hakam Balawi, with responsibility for administrative affairs while security issues will be conducted by the national security council headed by Arafat,” Qorie told reporters in Ramallah on Saturday.

The move got scant support in Israel, which accuses Arafat of fomenting violence in a three-year-old Palestinian revolt — a charge he denies. In new bloodshed on Saturday, Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“This is an internal Palestinian matter. What we want to see is a strategic decision to curb terrorism,” an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said, referring to a Palestinian crackdown on militants mandated by a US-backed roadmap to peace.

Like other Palestinian officials, Qorie has ruled out such action, saying it could spark civil war.

FOUR DEAD: On Saturday, witnesses said Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man and 15-year-old boy during confrontations with stonethrowers in the West Bank city of Jenin and a nearby village. Five other boys were wounded, medical officials said. Military sources said soldiers opened fire after being shot at by gunmen among the stonethrowers.—Agencies