JERUSALEM - Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas reiterated his determination to crush militant violence and appealed to the Israeli public to trust him, in an interview broadcast on Israeli public television on Sunday.
"The Palestinian Authority does not want such attacks, we reject them and will suppress them if they rear up," said Abbas, just over two weeks since a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in Tel Aviv killing five Israelis.
The attack cast a long shadow over an informal ceasefire declared by Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a landmark Middle East peace summit in Egypt on February 8.
"The solution to the conflict can only be found in peace talks. Resorting to weapons gets nowhere... You must trust us," said Abbas.
"We are committed to making a 100-percent effort in the fight against terrorism because we want good, neighbourly relations" with Israel, he added.
In a pre-recorded interview before the Israeli cabinet on Sunday reportedly decided to dismantle 24 wildcat outposts in the West Bank, Abbas demanded an end to all Jewish settlement activity.
"The Israelis must end settlement building and allow me to restore trust by stopping the building of the wall," or security fence that Israel is constructing across the West Bank in a bid to stop Palestinian infiltrations.
"The barrier does not bring security... The Tel Aviv bomber crossed this barrier," he said of last month's attack outside a nightclub.
Asked about Jewish settlement homes that Israel is to evacuate in the Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank outposts by end-August, Abbas said: "No one will touch a centimetre (half an inch) of Palestinian public property".
It was his first interview to Israeli public television since being elected Palestinian Authority president in January following the death of Yasser Arafat.
The interview was due to be broadcast in full later Sunday, two days before Abbas holds key talks with Palestinian factions in Cairo on efforts to agree on a formal ceasefire.
03/13/2005 18:40 GMT