Israel pushing Palestinians to civil war - Abbas

President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel yesterday of trying to avoid peace talks and push Palestinians into civil war by insisting that militants be disarmed ahead of any negotiations on statehood.

Mr Abbas said in a televised address that Israel was acting as though it had "no peace partner", shortly after a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meant to encourage peacemaking following Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

It was not the first time that Mr Abbas had said that disarming militants could risk civil war, but it was some of his strongest criticism of Israel since the Gaza pull-out in September.

He accused Israel of "a determination that Palestinians pass through a civil war" because of its insistence that negotiations cannot start before the disarming of militant groups waging an uprising since talks failed in 2000.

His speech marked the anniversary of a Palestinian declaration of independence from exile in 1988.

Palestinians are meant to start disarming militants under a US-backed peace "road map". Israel also says it is committed to that plan, though it has failed to meet its own pledge to freeze settlement building in the West Bank.

Powerful militant factions, such as Islamic group Hamas, say they will not give up their weapons and have occasionally clashed with security forces. Some also have strong popular support because of their fight against Israel.

Most groups agreed with Mr Abbas to abide by a truce with Israel, though violence has flared sporadically.

Israeli officials reiterated that there could be no statehood talks before militants are disarmed.

"These conditions are clear and these are their obligations from the first stage of the road map," Zeev Boim, Israel's deputy Defence Minister, told Israel Radio.

During her visit, Ms Rice renewed US pressure on Mr Abbas to act against the armed groups. She also pushed Israel on the question of settlement building. Israelis and Palestinians reached a US-brokered deal yesterday to improve access for Gaza, but there has been little sign of movement on peacemaking following the withdrawal. Sporadic violence has kept contacts icy.

"(Israel) is seeking to impose a very dangerous option, and that is a long-term solution based on setting up a state with provisional borders controlled by the Israelis, divided by settlements into isolated cantons," Mr Abbas said.

In another speech delivered on his behalf at a conference in Israel marking the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Mr Abbas said he believed a deal could be possible.

Palestinians have long accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of trying to use the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a ruse to seal a permanent hold on much larger chunks of the West Bank.