Posted on 07/02/2002 7:59:27 PM PDT by HAL9000
LONDON, July 3 (AFP) - Britain on Tuesday called for new Palestinian leaders to take their place alongside Yasser Arafat, but denied a rift with the United States over President George W. Bush's harder line that Arafat should go.
Junior British foreign office minister Mike O'Brien said that the Palestinian Authority needed to "reform its institutions and create circumstances in which other representatives can come forward with whom we can deal, as well as president Arafat".
His call, made in a statement issued in London, came after he met Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where he urged the veteran Palestinian leader to "exercise his authority to end the suicide bombings".
O Brian's statement was issued after envoys from the Middle East "Quartet" -- the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- met in London to examine ways of bringing about reforms of the Palestinian Authority.
A European diplomat here told AFP that the quartet's meeting was "rather positive", but that it had not addressed the sensitive topic of the legitimacy or the political role of Arafat.
"The discussions were rather about a subject which has been in the air for a long time -- the reforms that the Palestinian leadership must engage in, and the means by which the Palestinians can be helped to put these into practice, particularly the subject of a independent judiciary and elections," the diplomat said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has taken a softer stance on Arafat, dismissed any talk of a rift with the US.
He insisted that trans-Atlantic relations were "solid, sound and working well".
"This relationship is important. It is in fantastic shape and as long as I am prime minister it will remain so," Blair told Britain's Channel 4 News.
A US official said the quartet's envoys -- meeting for the first time since Bush unveiled his blueprint for the Middle East last week -- had been looking to create a steering committee to assist in the reform of the Palestinian Authority.
The committee would be responsible for prioritizing the needs of the Palestinians as they undertake their own efforts to reform their security services, legal system and economy, said Lynn Cassel, a State Department spokeswoman in Washington.
Cassel would not elaborate on the composition or exact mandate of the steering committee but said the meeting had found all four quartet members in general agreement on the need for Palestinian reform.
"There was broad agreement on the importance of real reform of Palestinian political structures, the economy, the legal system, the security apparatus and the creation of an environment in which democracy and a civil society can grow and flourish," she said.
Cassel noted that the Palestinians themselves had begun to take "the first important steps" toward reform but called on them to do more to win back the confidence of the international community.
The talks also came as US Secretary of State Colin Powell has repeatedly said that neither he nor other US officials have any plans to meet Arafat because his leadership has been "flawed".
For its part, Britain has said it will deal with whoever the Palestinians elect as leader.
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