Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz agreed late Tuesday that Israel would soon pull out from Tulkarm and Jericho in the West Bank.

The agreement was reached when Mofaz and Abbas met at the Erez crossing on the Gaza-Israel border, which was the highest-level negotiations between the two sides since the Palestinian leader and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a cease-fire at asummit in Egypt on Feb. 8.

Abbas told a joint news conference after the meeting that a joint Israeli-Palestinian committee for security and political affairs would hold a series of meetings in the coming days, including a meeting of military and security officials in the WestBank on Wednesday "to finalize all needed preparations for the pullout."

Mofaz said Israel will likely transfer Jericho and Tulkarm to Palestinian security control in the next few days, and the transfer was part of an overall "step-by-step policy."

"We must advance very cautiously," he said, adding the securityof Israeli citizens was the top priority. He also said Israeli security forces would continue to operate wherever they were needed.

Earlier in the day, Sharon adopted Mofaz's proposal that Jericho should be the first of five West Bank cities to be handed over.

"The cease-fire is only an optical illusion that will blow up in a short time, so what is needed is to dismantle the infrastructure" of terrorist organizations, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said.

US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters that Rice and Shalom "talked about the need to move forward in terms of both sides meeting their obligations and responsibilities-- on the Palestinian side, to end terrorism, dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism; on the Israeli side, to meet their obligations as well."

In a speech at the National Defense University on Tuesday, US President George W. Bush renewed his call for a future Palestinianstate that is "truly viable with contiguous territory on the West Bank," while calling on Palestinian leaders to "actively confront terrorist groups."

Bush said: "Israel must freeze settlement activity, help the Palestinians build a thriving economy and ensure that a new Palestinian state is truly viable with contiguous territory on theWest Bank."

"Palestinian leaders must fight corruption, encourage free enterprise, rest true authority with the people and actively confront terrorist groups," Bush added.

"Arab states must end incitement in their own media, cut off public and private funding for terrorism, stop their support for extremist education, and establish normal relations with Israel."

At the Feb. 8 Sharm el-Sheikh summit in Egypt, Israel promised to hand over security control of five West Bank cities to the Palestinians as part of a confidence-building package.

Source: Xinhua