PALESTINE - Oct 13 - Qorei Insists His Cabinet Will Not Resign Early.

PM Ahmad Qorei says his government will not quit before its mandatory resignation next month, defying calls by legislators who says it had failed to halt armed chaos. Lawlessness, however, continued in the coastal territory with the abduction by masked Palestinian gunmen of a US and a British journalist. In a raid of the West Bank, Israeli occupation forces arrested a Hamas leader of who had been wanted for nearly a decade and a 14-year-old boy allegedly coerced by militants into becoming a bomber. On the political front, Qorei said that, as dictated by an election law, the Cabinet would remain in place until next month when it would be required to leave office to allow time to prepare for a legislative ballot in January. "We are staying until the elections campaign begins", he told reporters. "We are at a critical crossroad. We are coming closer to elections. We have to impose law and order". The Palestinian Parliament had voted to accept a committee report that said the Cabinet mishandled its response to factional anarchy in Gaza that worsened after Israel's pullout last month, and urged Pres Mahmoud Abbas to form a new government. Lawlessness in Gaza has increased since Israel completed its pullout on Sep 12, with rival armed groups rushing to stake a claim to power. Abbas ordered gunmen outside the security services to give up their weapons. Several gunfights erupted last week between Palestinian militants and policemen. Citing what they said was the Cabinet's lack of control to combat the chaos, Palestinian members of Parliament called on Abbas to form a new government or face a no-confidence ballot, a move that does not affect his leadership since he was elected by popular vote. Qorei said Abbas told the Parliament in a letter that there was insufficient time to form a new government if the Cabinet resigned now, as officials would be busy campaigning for the election. Ahmad Deek, a Fatah member of Parliament, said legislators would study the letter and "if we are not convinced we will hold a no-confidence vote and bring the government down". In the latest challenge, to Abbas's approach to lawlessness, a reporter and photographer working for Knight Ridder newspapers were seized by assailants who stopped their car near the town of Khan Younis and took them away at gunpoint, their Palestinian translator, Ziad Abu Mustafa, said. Security forces have mounted a search for them, Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa said. Israel, meanwhile, in a sweep through the West Bank, arrested Hamas leader Ibrahim Ghneimat in the village of Sourif, near the southern city of Hebron, according to security sources. (Ghneimat is accused of involvement in a suicide bombing of a cafe in Tel Aviv in March 1997 which killed three Israelis, the kidnap and killing of an Israeli soldier in September 1996 and two shooting attacks near Hebron in the same year which killed five Israelis). In another arrest in the Hebron-area town of Dahariyya, troops brought a fugitive's mother to call on him to surrender. When he came out of his hideout, he was forced to strip to show he hadn't strapped explosives to his body. The Israeli Army said it had arrested 14-year-old Salah al-Jitan who told his interrogators that militants from the Al-Aqsa pressured him to carry out a suicide bombing after he quarreled with his father. The teenager said the militants threatened to kill him and distribute a statement claiming he was a collaborator with Israel if he didn't carry out their orders, the Israeli Army said. Al-Aqsa disputed the Israeli account.