Powell said the group would have a "coordination role" in implementing the steps in the roadmap

WASHINGTON, May 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday, May 23, that Washington would send a group of intelligence and security officials to the Middle East to coordinate implementation of the roadmap peace plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The team, the initial core of which will be about seven- to 10-people strong, is expected to leave for the region in the coming days and base itself in occupied Jerusalem, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted U.S. administration officials as saying.

"We see it as a small coordinating group that would be coordinating our efforts ... to make sure that we are talking to one another and we are getting started," a senior State Department official said.

Powell said members of the group were being chosen now and would have a "coordination role" in implementing the steps in the roadmap which lays out measures for the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005.

The team's arrival is expected after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presents the roadmap to his cabinet for approval following his announcement on Friday that he accepted the plan, albeit with serious reservations.

That announcement was part of a carefully coordinated diplomatic dance, negotiated over the past three days between senior U.S. and Israeli officials, culminating in the release of an American statement recognizing Israel's concerns and pledging to take them into consideration.

In that statement, issued in the names of Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Washington described the Israeli concerns are "real" and vowed to "address them fully and seriously."

Difficulties Ahead

Despite the seeming breakthrough, which may lead to a three-way summit between Bush, Sharon and Palestinian Premier Mahmud Abbas, Powell predicted difficulties ahead.

Speaking to reporters accompanying him on his plane back from a G-8 foreign ministers meeting in Paris, he admitted that the most contentious issues had effectively been put off to salvage the roadmap.

"It's easy to say 'why didn't you solve all of this up front?'," Powell said before answering his own question. "Because you couldn't. You couldn't get started.

"These are difficult issues that are ahead," he said, referring specifically to Israel's dormancy to allow return of Palestinian refugees.

"Those kinds of concerns that would be so severe that to try to deal with now would stop the process before it got started, are the kinds of concerns that we're saying we will have to address as we go forward," Powell said.

But he stressed that the word "address" -- used deliberately in his and Rice's statement -- did not pre-judge siding with Israel over the Palestinians.

"'Address doesn't necessarily mean make a judgement, it means 'address'," Powell said.

"Address is very nice broad term that I think more than adequately captures what we are anticipating we will have to do as we go down the roads."

Bush on Friday, May 23, fuelled speculation he may convey his first Middle East summit next month, saying he would meet with Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers if it would promote peace.

Scepticism

The Palestinian leadership, however, cast doubts on the Israeli intensions to implement the roadmap.

The leadership said in a statement Friday, following a meeting under President Yasser Arafat, the roadmap should be put into effect as it is, rejecting any Israeli amendments.

Arafat’s media adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina, for his part, charged Israel was reneging on its commitment to implement the peace plan.

"All changes, which could be brought to the roadmap, would be unacceptable to the Palestinian leadership," he said.

"The Israeli government will look for a way to shirk its obligations to the roadmap," Abu Rudeina stressed.

Meanwhile, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), Ahmad Jibril, dismissed the internationally-drafted plan as promoting U.S. and Israeli dominance over the region.

"The main objective of the roadmap is to disarm the Palestinian people.. and impose the hegemony of America and the Zionists and to stop the resistance and the intifada," Jibril said, speaking at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of his son Jihad's assassination by Israeli soldiers.