Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said today an agreement by militant groups to suspend attacks on Israelis was imminent, but militants denied a truce was at hand.
"It was not determined officially, but we are waiting for it to be announced in the next few hours," Mr Arafat told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Top Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed Al-Hindi said in Gaza the group was still canvassing its fighters in the field and members in Israeli prisons. "It is fair to say in the next few days," he said about the finalisation of a truce deal.
An agreement by militants to halt attacks is crucial to the implementation of a US-backed peace plan that also stipulates a dismantling of militant groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state.
Ismail Haniyah, a Hamas leader, said after Mr Arafat spoke that he expected his movement's decision on a truce would be announced "in the coming days".
Lining up behind Israel, US President George W. Bush said yesterday "organisations such as Hamas" must be dismantled if peace is to be achieved in the Middle East.
Arafat aide Mr Ahmed Adel-Rahman rejected Mr Bush's remarks as "a flagrant call for civil war".
Mr Abdel-Rahman's reaction appeared to put the Palestinian Authority and the White House on a collision course over the "road map" to peace that has been battered by constant violence since its affirmation at a Middle East summit on June 4th.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, appointed by Mr Arafat under international pressure, has said he does not intend to confront the militants. Instead, he wants to persuade them to accept a truce that would end 33 months of violence.
In new violence today, Palestinians fired several mortars and home-made rockets at a Jewish settlement in Gaza and an Israeli community bordering the strip, damaging a Jewish seminary.
In the West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli troops destroyed the family home of a Hamas militant accused of recruited suicide bombers.
Agencies