Palestinian groups agreed on Thursday to an open-ended halt to attacks on Israel as long as certain conditions are met. The agreement strengthens President Mahmoud Abbas's hand in trying to persuade the Jewish state to free more Palestinians and hand back more West Bank territory, analysts said. A joint statement by the groups said extending the current period of calm was part of their programme for 2005.
It did not set a specific time limit for the truce but an official of the militant group Hamas said it would expire at the end of the year if Israel did not meet militants' demands.
After 48 hours of talks in a desert hotel outside Cairo, Hamas and the second militant group, Islamic Jihad, joined the mainstream Fatah movement in a commitment to extend the de facto truce in place since February.
The final statement from the talks said: "The attendees agreed to a programme for the year 2005 based on commitment to maintain the current climate of calm in exchange for an Israeli commitment to stop all form of aggression against our land and the Palestinian people, wherever they might be, and the release of all prisoners and detainees."
The Hamas official, Mohammad Nazzal, told reporters: "What was agreed upon today is calm until the end of this year as a maximum period of time in exchange for an Israeli commitment to withdrawal from cities and release prisoners."
But officials of Fatah and Islamic Jihad said they saw the truce as open-ended, provided Israel met the conditions.
"The final formula does not specify a time frame," Anwar Abu Taha of the militant group Islamic Jihad told Reuters.
Abbas needs the truce to hold so he can persuade Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territory, free prisoners and take other steps to make life easier for ordinary Palestinians.
Other Palestinian demands include an end to Israeli settlement activity in occupied territory and to work on the barrier Israel is building through the West Bank.
Abbas says a period of calm should lead to the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks on an independent Palestinian state.
But Israel's first response was to repeat its long-standing demand that Abbas dismantle the militant groups.
"Israel sees the discussions in Cairo as problematic in that they only talk about a temporary time-out," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
"The road map is unequivocal - Abbas must disarm the terrorist groups and we hope that the process of disarmament will start sooner rather than later."
Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit of Egypt, which sponsored the talks, told reporters: "We need a number of months and perhaps until the end of the current year to reach the situation as it was on 28 September, 2000."
He was referring to the start of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. More than 4,000 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed since then.
In deference to the views of militants, the final statement said the Palestinian people had the right to resist the Israeli occupation. Abbas himself favours non-violence.
It also offered militants the prospect of integration into a reactivated Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which for the past 40 years has been the monopoly of secular, leftist and nationalist groups.