OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 29 May 2003 — Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said he would meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today to discuss implementing a peace plan ahead of a three-way summit next week with US President George W. Bush.

But with the first phase of the document in theory expiring this week, the road map has had little impact on the ground.

“I will meet Ariel Sharon tomorrow to discuss the implementation of the road map,” Abbas said after talks in Ramallah on the West Bank with Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio. The second meeting between the two prime ministers since the international peace plan was published last month was initially due to take place yesterday but was postponed officially due to “scheduling problems”.

Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr told AFP in Jericho the meeting would take place in Jerusalem, while another official said it would be late today at a venue to be decided at the last moment for security reasons.

The three-phase plan drafted by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia calls for an end to Israeli-Palestinian violence, a freeze on Jewish settlement activity on Palestinian land and an Israeli troop withdrawal.

The Israeli Cabinet last Sunday approved the blueprint designed to pave the way for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005, albeit with a list of 14 reservations.

But Abbas dismissed Israel’s attempts at reshaping the plan once again and stressed the United States had made it clear the road map had to be implemented unchanged from the way it was submitted to both parties a month ago.

“We don’t accept each side picking and choosing only those specific elements that are convenient for them in the road map,” he said in an interview published by the Israeli daily Haaretz.

But he also admitted in the same interview that his part of the deal was not easy and warned that he could not deliver on his pledge to disarm militant groups “overnight”. He said the Palestinian security services in the West Bank had been “completely destroyed” in Israeli Army raids and 70 percent destroyed in the Gaza Strip.

After a meeting with the Spanish foreign minister also in Ramallah, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urged Spain — a strong backer of the US-led war in Iraq — to use its good relations with the White House in promoting implementation of the road map.

Bush is for the first time getting personally involved in the Middle East conflict in a bid to kick start implementation of the ailing plan.

The US president will hold talks first with several Arab leaders in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on June 3, before hopping over the Red Sea for a summit with King Abdallah of Jordan in Aqaba, a White House spokesman said yesterday.

Egypt said Abbas would also take part in the Sharm El-Sheikh talks. While in the Jordanian resort on June 4, Bush is expected to meet both the Israeli and Palestinian premiers, although there was still no confirmation from any of the parties.

Bush hopes to get not only “a solid expression of support” from Arab leaders for the road map but also “a commitment” from them to help the Palestinians overhaul their security arrangements, to condemn terrorism and to isolate groups behind extremist violence, said US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The talks would mark Abbas’ entry into the international arena, four weeks after his power-sharing post was created, and crown US-Israeli efforts to sideline Arafat, accused of running a corrupt Palestinian Authority and supporting hard-line militants.

Ahead of the push for peace, violence continued on the ground yesterday, although with less bloodshed.

A 15-year-old Palestinian was shot in the eye by Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Tulkarm. A Palestinian former member of Yasser Arafat’s Force 17 elite guard was shot dead in a brutal revenge killing near the West Bank town of Ramallah yesterday, Palestinian security sources said.

Mahmum Zayed, 36, was shot six times in the head and chest in a killing initially blamed by Palestinian medical sources on the Israeli Army, which was carrying out an incursion in the area just east of Ramallah.

In the Palestinian radical camp, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah faction, surprisingly welcomed Sharon’s endorsement of the road map.

“The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are happy that Sharon and the Israeli government accepted the road map — it is a good thing,” spokesman Abu Mujahed said.