Mideast peace Quartet praises pullout

UNITED NATIONS - The United States and three peacemaking partners called Tuesday for "responsible and accountable" Palestinian leaders who would crack down on terrorists and welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal to withdraw from Gaza.

The statement, issued after a 21/2-hour meeting at the United Nations hosted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, drew Palestinian criticism and Israeli praise.

The Palestinians' U.N. observer, Nasser Al-Kidwa, said the United States dominated the deliberations, which issued a statement that amounted to nothing more than "mumbling that could mean anything."

By contrast, Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, said the Quartet - the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - had focused on "the real problem" of terror and a need for change within the Palestinian movement.

"Cracking down on terrorism and reforms are imperative for any meaningful political dialogue," Ayalon said in a telephone interview.

"Hope is in short supply," Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen said, reflecting on the stalemated search for Middle East peace. Cowen emphasized that a solution cannot be imposed by well-meaning outsiders but must be reached by the parties, the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Cowen and Javier Solana, the EU's senior diplomat, said at a news conference that the intent of the Quartet is for Israel to withdraw from all territory it captured from the Arabs in the 1967 Middle East war. That would mean not only Gaza, which Sharon is prepared to yield, but all of the West Bank and part of Jerusalem.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, however, defended President Bush's assurances to Sharon last month at the White House that Israel would be entitled to retain some Jewish settlements on the West Bank in an overall agreement with the Palestinians.

He said that Bush had not abandoned his support for establishing a Palestinian state and that the Arabs and their supporters should recognize that Sharon's proposal would begin a process of Israelis' giving up settlements.

The statement issued by the Quartet said that Sharon's plan offered "a rare moment of opportunity in the search for peace in the Middle East" and that land evacuated by Israel should be taken over quickly by the Palestinian Authority. The Quartet also promised to work with the World Bank to ensure the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians are met.

TEEN SUSPECT: An Israeli military court on Tuesday indicted a 15-year-old Palestinian boy on charges of recruiting teenagers to become suicide bombers. The court said Nasser Awartani recruited a 16-year-old who blew himself up at a military checkpoint and another teen who was caught with a bomb strapped to his body.

DIPLOMATS' LETTER: Sixty former U.S. diplomats have signed a letter to President Bush contending that his "unabashed support" for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is costing the United States credibility and friends.

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