WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday he finds "disturbing" a failure by Palestinian Authority presidential election frontrunner Mahmud Abbas to distance himself from the radical Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades movement, in an apparent bid to win votes.
"It's disturbing," Powell told NBC television Sunday.
"I know that what Mr. Abbas is doing is running for election. And he has to reach out to all parts of the Palestinian community," the secretary of state said on the "Meet the Press" program.
Nevertheless, Powell said he sees a disconnect between Abbas' failure to clearly repudiate the radical Islamic group and what he "has been saying with respect to the need to end terror and the need to try to persuade all segments of the Palestinian population to move away from terror and to move toward this opportunity for peace.
"That, I believe, is his prevailing position," he told NBC.
The radical Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades movement, an armed offshoot of the dominant Palestinian Fatah faction, has refused to renounce armed struggle against Israel and has embraced the second intifada as just.
Mahmud Abbas has accused Israel of deliberately trying to undermine next week's Palestinian presidential election by launching large-scale military operations in the Gaza Strip, including a new incursion by about 50 Israeli tanks on Sunday.
Abbas hopes to succeed the late Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestinian Authority in the January 9 ballot, and has declared his opposition to the use of weapons in the four-year intifada, or uprising.
But the 69-year-old Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman said he hoped to persuade armed factions such as Hamas and Al-Aqsa to end their campaign of attacks through dialogue rather than with a crackdown long demanded by Israel.
Powell said if elected, Abbas may have to work harder to separate himself from radical Islamic elements.
"We need reformed Palestinian leadership that deals with this terrorist threat. Mr. Abbas said he hopes to persuade them, but that may not be enough. The challenge may be greater than that. He may have to undertake operations against them," Powell said.
"I think he knows that the only way forward with a successful election behind him is to reform the Palestinian Authority, end corruption, make sure that it's an authority that rests on law, reform the security services," Powell continued.
"What he's going to find is that the Israeli government will be ready to work with such a partner for peace," the secretary added.
01/02/2005 20:21 GMT - AFP