Powell blames Arafat over attacks

Powell blames Arafat for the continuing attacks on Israelis

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said Yasser Arafat must use his "moral authority" to rein in militants.

He told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he "blamed squarely" the Palestinian leader for failing to stop attacks against Israelis.

Mr Powell said his "immediate goal" was to bring together Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon.

He said a US team would be travelling to the region within a week or so.

"Contacts are taking place, we are working on that," he told the committee hearing on Friday.

"I hope that meeting will happen soon and that may give us a basis to engage more fully if the two sides begin to engage with one another."

He said Israel had created problems for the peace process by building a barrier through parts of the West Bank.

'Unwillingness'

But he said the US-backed roadmap to peace could not start unless Mr Arafat clamped down on militants, or gave Mr Qurei powers to stop the attacks.

"What we have not yet seen is a determined effort on the part of the Palestinian Authority, with the security forces available to them, to go after these perpetrators in a systemic, definitive way," he said.

The priority is to bring together the two prime ministers, Powell said

"I put the blame squarely on Chairman Arafat for his unwillingness to speak out, (to) use the moral authority that as a leader everybody says he has."

He told lawmakers that the impasse may be broken by Mr Sharon's proposal to withdraw virtually all Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

He said the US team would "follow up on some of the ideas" put forward by Mr Sharon.

"We want settlements closed, but we want to know exactly how that's going to be done. And where will those settlers go? And how does that affect settlement activity in the West Bank? We have to understand the total picture."