RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 18 (AFP) - Senior Palestinians called on veteran leader Yasser Arafat to follow his rare admission of failure by his government Wednesday with concrete measures to empower his prime minister.
In a keynote speech to Palestinian MPs at his West Bank headquarters, Arafat promised to correct "unacceptable" mistakes by his Palestinian Authority and to set up a special committee to address demands for reform.
"This speech has very important headlines and we thank Arafat for it, but all the Palestinian institutions could not implement anything without Arafat's signature," said parliament speaker Rawhi Fattuh.
"For that," he said, addressing Arafat directly, "we need from you some formal decisions with your signature about issues you raised in the speech."
A 14-member committee of MPs which has been pushing Arafat to crackdown on corruption and implement reforms in the security services was due to meet the 75-year-old later Wednesday.
In his speech Arafat gave his full backing to his prime minister Ahmed Qorei's efforts to tackle the breakdown in law and order in the territories which reached a peak last month with a spate of kidnappings and arson attacks on government buildings.
Azmi Shouaibi, an independent member of parliament and a member of the parliamentary committee, said it was vital that Arafat hand Qorei real power in the security realm for there to be improvements on the ground.
"It is not enough for Arafat to support Ahmed Qorei's cabinet -- he must give him all the authority according to the law," he told AFP.
Hassan Khreishe, deputy head of the PLC, appeared distinctly unimpressed by the speech which he warned would be hollow if it was not followed through with action.
"The speech is just talk," he told AFP. "Now the issue has to be proper implementation and without any formal decision (from Arafat), nothing will change," he said, expressing doubt that anything concrete would be achieved at the evening meeting.
"There will not be any decisions signed off tonight."