GAZA CITY (AFP) - New PLO leader Mahmud Abbas was to hold a further round of talks with Palestinian factions in a bid to prevent an outbreak of mass violence before a successor to Yasser Arafat can be elected.
After a series of round table talks with the factions, including the Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza late Monday, Abbas was expected to hold a series of bilateral meetings with their leaders.
The 69-year-old moderate former prime minister, who is expected to be confirmed as the dominant Fatah faction's candidate to run in the January 9 election, was also meeting with senior Gaza-based Fatah officials.
His candidacy has received the endorsement of Mohammed Dahlan, who is the key powerbroker in Gaza, and served as Abbas' security minister last year, but not necessarily that of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades faction.
"Only Abu Mazen (Abbas) can act as a bridge between the past, present and future," Dahlan said in an interview.
But an Al-Aqsa spokesman said: "We do not support Abu Mazen for the election and we have decided to vote for Marwan Barghuti to be our candidate".
A poll conducted last month said the West Bank Fatah leader, widely regarded as the inspiration of the Palestinian uprising and serving five life sentences in Israel, was the most popular man after Arafat.
Dahlan vowed that a gunfight inside a mourning tent for Arafat in Gaza on Sunday, which broke out shortly after he and Abbas arrived, would act as a spur to address the fraught security crisis in the territory.
"The incident ... will push the Palestinian leadership to take measures as soon as possible to enforce the law. But we cannot bring about a solution just by pressing a button," he said.
But one Gaza-based senior security official said the Palestinian Authority could never disarm the plethora of armed factions in the eight weeks before the election.
"The only way is to put public pressure on these armed groups but I don't believe there's enough time to do this before the coming elections," he said.
Confronting fears that security may disintegrate following the death of Arafat, outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to visit Jerusalem and the West Bank next Monday and Tuesday.
It will be one of the last missions for Powell, who resigned after four years and is expected to be replaced by one of US President George W. Bush's closest aides, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice.
On Monday, he welcomed the "responsible manner (in) which Palestinian leaders have started to come together". Bush described Arafat's death last week as a chance to open a new chapter in the elusive Middle East peace process.
But Powell stressed that the White House would only resume peace initiatives when "the Palestinian leadership is in place and when they have made clear what their commitments are and have started to act on those commitments."
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Powell's visit would "enable the emergence of a moderate and responsible Palestinian leadership".
Despite paying tribute to Powell, Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat called on his replacement to toe a more balanced line.
"We hope that in the future, the United States and President Bush will exercise balance with its policies in our region," he told AFP.
Washington and Israel see Abbas -- strongly tipped to win the leadership election -- as a relative moderate, unlike Arafat who was branded a terrorist and cold-shouldered for four years.
The outgoing Middle East envoy at the United Nations, one of the four powers that drafted the stalled roadmap peace plan, held out hope for a Palestinian state by 2008, three years later than originally planned under the blueprint.
Terje Roed-Larsen said the four sponsors of the deal, including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Powell, could meet in Egypt next week at an international conference on Iraq.
Shalom meanwhile hinted that Israel may take military action in Lebanon after one homemade rocket landed in northern Israel and another in the sea.
"We will react in a time and manner that seems appropriate to us," he told army radio.
Neither projectile caused any damage and were apparently fired by a Palestinian group operating under the patronage of the Lebanese-based Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah.
11/16/2004 - 17:05 GMT - AFP