Israel's Barak promises to make life easier for Palestinians, but not to remove checkpoints

Israel will soon begin making life easier for West Bank Palestinians but won't remove checkpoints for now, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday, despite pleas from Palestinian leaders and the international community to ease the travel restrictions.

Visiting a crossing terminal between the southern West Bank and Israel, Barak said Israel would soon take steps to expedite movement through the hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks Israel has built in the West Bank.

Israel sees the barriers as a key element of a military policy that has dramatically reduced Palestinian attacks in recent years. But Palestinians counter that the roadblocks humiliate them and stifle their economy.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, now an international Mideast envoy, has urged Israel to improve Palestinian movement, and during a visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday, the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, appealed to the U.S. to pressure Israel to take down checkpoints.

Barak indicated Monday such a move was not expected soon. The checkpoints block militants and are vital to Israel's security, Barak said. He said only that the government would "look into" certain changes in a limited test area, but offered no further details. "It's still too early to give an answer," he said.

Nabil Amr, an aide to Abbas, criticized Barak's unwillingness to remove checkpoints, saying his position violated Israel's commitments. Israel's stated security concerns, Amr said, were "a slogan."

"You cannot punish all of the Palestinians under the umbrella of security," he said.

Israel is pursuing a peace agreement with Abbas' government, and both sides have said they hope to complete a deal by the end of the year.

But Israel has not reduced its military activity in the West Bank, saying Palestinian security forces are still too weak and disorganized to assume control. Israeli officials have said that without the Israeli military presence, the West Bank could fall to the Islamic militants of Hamas, just as the Gaza Strip did last year.

Barak said Monday that Israel would facilitate the construction of several industrial zones meant to provide thousands of jobs and boost the Palestinian economy. Many of the projects, funded by foreign governments, have been held up because of Israeli security concerns. Barak gave no timetable for the projects and did not say how he intended to move them forward.

Abbas has largely refused to deal with his Hamas rivals since they violently routed security forces loyal to his Fatah party and took over Gaza last year.

But over the weekend, officials from Fatah and Hamas met in Yemen and signed an agreement to continue reconciliation talks. However, on Monday, top aides to Abbas already were distancing themselves from the deal. Ahmed Qureia, a senior Abbas confidant, said the Fatah official in Yemen had only signed the agreement because of a "misunderstanding."

Israeli officials said any power-sharing arrangement between Fatah and Hamas would mean an end to peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel.

Barak said Monday the agreement was not important. "I don't think anything happened in Yemen that requires a response from us," he said.

Also Monday, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian farmer in the Gaza Strip after militants attacked military vehicles in the same area, Palestinian medical officials said. The dead man, 65, was on his land near the Gaza-Israel border at the time.

The military had no comment on the incident.

Meanwhile, an aide to Abbas, Ahmed al-Weidi, said he was detained by Israeli police and questioned for five hours. Al-Weidi, an adviser on Jerusalem affairs, said Israel wanted information about a visit to Lebanon last month. He said the trip was to discuss the Arab League's designation of Jerusalem as an Arab cultural capital.

"We have nothing to hide. It is outrageous that in the time the Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is meeting President Abbas, they are at the same time arresting and interrogating his people, despite the fact that we went there on Abbas' behalf," he said.

Israel bars Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem. It also has no diplomatic relations with Lebanon and is concerned about ties between Lebanese guerrillas and Palestinian militant groups.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed al-Weidi was questioned about the Lebanon trip. He said al-Weidi was released but the investigation would continue.