RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Less than three days before a deadline to announce his cabinet or step down, Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Mahmud Abbas was still locked in a battle of wills with Yasser Arafat Monday, April 21, over his choice of a security chief capable of cracking down on resistance activists.

Abbas, the Palestine Liberation Organization second-in-command who stormed out of talks with Arafat late Saturday amid threats to quit, was refusing to back down on his insistence on appointing Gaza strongman Colonel Mohammad Dahlan as head of internal security.

Arafat, who fell out with Dahlan before the former Gaza security chief quit his job last year, believes his appointment would wrest control of the key internal security forces, a power he is keen to hold on to, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

According to the BBC online news service, Arafat is reported to want Hani al-Hassan, an old loyalist of his, to continue to head the ministry, which runs Palestinian security services.

One senior Palestinian said Abbas had refused fresh mediation efforts by Fatah officials, saying he did not want to hear any alternative cabinet proposals.

"They know where I am if they want to find me," Abbas was quoted as saying by one top official.

"It could be a political catastrophe" if Abbas failed to meet the midnight (2100 GMT) Wednesday deadline to name his new cabinet, said Israeli Arab MP Ahmad Tibi, a former advisor to Arafat.

Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has until then to reveal his line-up or step aside for Arafat to name a new Premier he deems capable of forming a government.

Abbas was appointed Prime Minister on March 19 in a key reform made by Arafat under huge domestic and international pressure, especially from Israel and the United States, which want to see him relegated to a symbolic role, arguing he is doing too little to prevent deadly anti-Israeli attacks.

U.S. President George W. Bush has said he will publish the international peace "roadmap" - a phased plan to create a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel by 2005 - once Abbas has finalized his list of ministers.

The appointment of Abbas, regarded as a leading moderate, has been hailed by the international community and earned a rare invitation from Washington to visit once he has been sworn into office.

Israel has also offered to ease restrictions and pull back some troops should Abbas tackle resistance groups.

But the hopes were teetering Monday as both Abbas and Arafat appeared determined to go down to the wire, with mediators making desperate efforts to reconcile the two men who together founded the mainstream Fatah faction in the late 1950s.

"The situation is very difficult, both sides are sticking to their guns," said one senior Fatah official.

"But we have no choice but to succeed, no matter how difficult the situation. Forming a Palestinian government is not like forming any other government. We are forming a government while under occupation and the introduction of a Prime Minister is new to the political system," said Ahmad Ghuneim, of Fatah's Higher Committee, the nationalist faction's second-highest body.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said international pressure should be piled on Arafat, who has held several telephone conversations in recent weeks with Arab leaders, in particular Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.