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Deal struck to halt attacks on Israel: Abbas aide

By Agnieszka Sawicka 2 hours, 44 minutes ago

WARSAW (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has reached an agreement with militant groups that they will stop rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel, an aide said on Wednesday.

But one faction, Islamic Jihad, said it was not involved in any such cease-fire. Similar deals struck by the Palestinian leadership in the past have curbed rocket attacks but have not totally ended them.

"President Abbas is doing everything he can to stop the attacks," said Nabil Amr, accompanying Abbas on a visit to Poland as part of a diplomatic offensive to convince the EU to lift a freeze on financial aid to the Palestinian government.

"He has reached a real agreement with all forces that occasionally fire rockets," Amr told Reuters in an interview.

In Gaza, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, which advocates the Jewish state's destruction, said his group's had no plan to stop firing rockets and was bound only by tactical considerations.

"There is no decision to stop firing," the spokesman, Abu Ahmed, said. "It increases and decreases according to security conditions on ground."

Palestinian rockets are makeshift and small, rarely causing serious damage in Israel. But Israeli officials have voiced concern that Gazan militants could smuggle in more lethal, military-grade rockets.

Prodded by the United States, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed on Sunday to draw up lists of confidence-building measures designed to revive the stalled Middle East peace process.

The Palestinians hope this will persuade the United States and Europe to unfreeze economic aid, without which the Palestinian government is virtually paralyzed.

The restrictions were imposed when the Islamist Hamas group came to power a year ago after beating Abbas's more moderate Fatah in elections. Islamic Jihad and some other militants behind rocket attacks come from factions opposed to Fatah's political platform.

Hamas and Fatah now rule together in a unity government.

Amr said Hamas was gradually coming round to meeting the international community's demands to recognize Israel and he hoped this would convince the West that Palestinians were really seeking lasting peace.

"We hope that these countries will understand that this is the significance of the unity government," he said.

Asked if Abbas's efforts to convince the Europeans were bringing results, Amr said: "Progress is not yet great. (But) more and more European countries -- Spain, France and Norway -- are normalizing relations with this government."

Deal struck to halt attacks on Israel: Abbas aide (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070418/ts_nm/palestinians_abbas_agreement_dc_2;_ylt=AhAl4Q3oHufFcWmaLTXJvMYUewgF)

Could this be the time of peace, for a while?