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Palestinian state still on agenda despite Likud vote

REUTERS, Jerusalem
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US leaders signalled that a Palestinian state was still on a Middle East peacemaking agenda, despite a vote by Sharon's right-wing Likud party never to accept one.
Israeli troops killed two Palestinian intelligence officers and arrested 14 militants early on Tuesday in further raids into Palestinian West Bank towns targeting what the government calls suspects in attacks on Israelis.
While Sharon confronted a party leadership challenge and Washington sought his assurances over the Likud decision, Yasser Arafat toured West Bank cities for the first time in five months and told Palestinians they would win a state.
But the Palestinian president skipped a visit to the devastated Jenin refugee camp, where he risked a hostile reception by Palestinians who say they owe their loyalty to Islamic militants and demand reforms.
"To Jerusalem we are headed. Jerusalem is the capital of our independent state of Palestine, never mind who agrees or does not," Arafat told a crowd in Nablus in the northern West Bank.
Israeli soldiers killed a regional Palestinian intelligence commander, Khaled Abu Knaam, and a subordinate in an overnight swoop into the Palestinian-ruled town of Halhoul in the southern West Bank, an army spokesman said.
The army arrested 14 more wanted Palestinian militants in four other West Bank towns and villages, he said.
Palestinian security sources said Abu Knaam and his aide were surprised and killed in their beds. The army said they were killed when they tried to flee.
Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the outcome of the Likud meeting showed Israel's true intentions and would compound Palestinian frustration in their 19-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Capitalising on a relative lull in violence, the White House said on Monday that President Bush would keep pushing for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke by telephone with Sharon about the issue en route to a NATO meeting in Iceland.
"The prime minister and I discussed the decision made by the Likud (central) committee yesterday (Sunday) and of course he reaffirmed to me that he remains committed to moving forward to achieve that vision that I think most people have of a Palestinian state," Powell said.
Sharon envisages the creation of a Palestinian state at the end of a long peacemaking process. He has said it is premature to talk of a state and has called for major reform of Arafat's Palestinian Authority as a precondition for talks.
Echoing comments made before stalking off the stage at his party convention after the vote, Sharon told Likud legislators on Monday that he, not the party, would set peacemaking policy.
"Two-thirds of the public elected me to make decisions, and I have," he said. "I will not allow internal political considerations or self-serving tricks to determine policy."
The Likud vote marked a victory for former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the incumbent Sharon in a looming battle for the party leadership.