Palestinians Agree on Cabinet

In a sign that increasingly senile terrorist Yassir Arafat has finally given way to someone acceptable to the US, if not necessarily Israel, who would prefer no Palestinian leadership exist, he and Mahmoud Abbas, have ended a dispute over who will take key security roles in a new Palestinian cabinet.

"If Yasser Arafat does not allow Mr Abu Mazen to form the cabinet... an opportunity of enormous importance will be lost and Arafat will have done it again," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday.

"The ones who will suffer the most [are] the Palestinian people as well as the innocent lives that might be lost as this crisis continues," he said.

The appointment last month of Mr Abbas as prime minister was seen as a breakthrough in reforms aimed at curbing Mr Arafat's decades-long grip on the Palestinian leadership.

The formation of a new Palestinian Government is a US pre- condition for publishing details of the new peace plan backed by the international community which aims to end two and a half years of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians.

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