RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian leaders geared up for their first high-level diplomatic talks since the death of Yasser Arafat as they prepared to welcome US and European foreign ministers next week.
As the West seeks to capitalize on its calls to kickstart the stalled Middle East peace process with the late leader no longer in the picture, Washington, Moscow and London are to dispatch their top diplomats here within days.
Outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to hold talks with Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei and new Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Jericho on Monday.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is also due in Israel and the West Bank, followed by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Thursday.
Ahead of the diplomatic-packed week, Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei met the French and US consuls to Jerusalem in Abu Dis, and EU special envoy to the Middle East Marc Otte, in Ramallah, on Saturday.
The European Union, in conjunction with the United Nations, United States and Russia, make up the so-called quartet of powers behind the roadmap peace plan that intended to create an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who is the former EU Middle East envoy, and German foreign ministry officials are also expected to visit in early December.
Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath told AFP that talks would focus on "a working plan based on implementing the roadmap" and the upcoming Palestinian leadership elections in January.
"We also want to ensure that Israel's withdrawal plan from the Gaza Strip takes place as part of this roadmap and not as an alternative," he added.
Since Arafat died on November 11, London has sought to galvanise US President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac into making headway on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Bush have outlined steps that would lead back to the roadmap, including democratic elections to replace Arafat and the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the race to succeed the late Palestinian leader formally began Saturday, with the opening of the registration period for potential candidates.
Rawhi Fattuh, who replaced Arafat as acting Palestinian Authority president for 60 days, has pledged to hold elections within the two-month timeframe laid out in the basic law.
Speaking in Gaza City on Saturday, he pressed Israel to stop its aggression, remove checkpoints and withdraw to military positions held before the Palestinian uprising broke out in September 2000.
"There will be a big presence of international observers to monitor this election," he said, confirming that no election candidate had yet registered.
Pending the emergence of a hefty political rival, Abbas is in pole position to win should he be named as the candidate for Fatah. The party was likely to declare its candidate after crunch talks Thursday.
So far, only three wildcard contenders have officially jumped into the race: Hamas co-founder Sheikh Talal Sidr, who quit to become a junior minister, lawyer Ghassan Barham and political science lecturer Abdel Sattar Qassem.
Negotiations minister Saeb Erakat told AFP he was "ready" to discuss security and voting arrangements with Israel in order to implement the same agreement that the two sides came to before the 1996 leadership election.
Similarly, Fattuh reiterated his insistence that Israel allow Palestinians living in annexed east Jerusalem to participate in the vote.

11/20/2004 - 17:36 GMT - AFP