Israeli prisoner list disappoints Palestinians

Israel yesterday published a list of 342 Palestinian prisoners it plans to free tomorrow to bolster a US-backed peace plan and reformist Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, but Palestinians cried foul.

Palestinian officials noted that 31 men were to have completed their sentences this month anyway, and that Israeli officials said earlier 540 would be freed. Palestinians want a general release of all 6,000 of their brethren in Israeli jails.

"What is this? Is this deception? Are they deceiving nations?" Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said in comments in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"This is a complete deception, a trick," said Palestinian Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan. "What the Israelis are doing will complicate the peace process and frustrate the peace supporters among the Palestinians."

In another blow to peace hopes, the local branch of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant group in the West Bank city of Tulkarm threatened to break a three-month truce - but only to avenge the killing of one of its members by Israeli soldiers.

The Brigades leader in Tulkarm said the local branch would otherwise stick to the ceasefire declared on June 29 by it and Islamic militant groups. Other branches of the fragmented and loosely disciplined Brigades said they would stick to the truce.