Yasser Arafat told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak he accepted his demand for Palestinian security reforms as a condition for Egypt to help stabilise Gaza if Israelis withdraw, officials said on Monday.
The Palestinian president was responding by letter to Egypt's mid-June deadline to agree to security overhauls or risk losing Cairo's offer to promote order in Gaza after a pullout, which the Israeli cabinet approved in principle on Sunday.
"Arafat has accepted the Egyptian ideas and is now awaiting the Israeli response. This will help the Egyptians take steps to retrain our police force and send their security experts to the Palestinian areas," a senior Palestinian official told Reuters.
But the extent of reforms agreeable to Arafat was not known. He has previously stalled such steps, complicating US-led efforts to revive peacemaking between Palestinians and Israel. Palestinians blame further Israeli army raids for the stalemate.
Egypt has offered to help revamp shaky Palestinian security forces to fill a vacuum once Israel removes Jewish settlements from occupied land.
Cairo's main aim is to avert a take-over by Islamist militants in the territory fringing its eastern border.
But Mubarak has demanded Arafat first root out corruption in the security apparatus, consolidate over a dozen murky agencies into three under the command of an empowered interior minister, and cede more security control to Prime Minister Ahmed Qorie.
Qorie told reporters Arafat had welcomed Egyptian involvement and agreed to its conditions including overhauling security. But he gave no details.
A senior Palestinian official gave room for doubt by saying Arafat believed Israel, keen to smash militant groups in Gaza, would not accept Cairo's condition of a cease-fire to avoid Egyptians getting caught in possible further conflict.
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