The announcement follows a deal struck last week between a radical cleric and authorities that brings Sharia law in return for an end to the insurgency.

The Taleban have been assessing that deal and Tuesday’s move followed a meeting under the group’s leader in the region, Maulana Fazlullah.

The scenic valley of Swat has long been blighted by militant violence.

‘Goodwill gesture’

“Today the shura (consultative council) met under Maulana Fazlullah and decided to hold a ceasefire for an indefinite period,” Taleban spokesman in the region Muslim Khan was quoted by the news agency AFP as saying.

“We are releasing all prisoners unconditionally. Today we released four paramilitary soldiers and we will release all security personnel in our custody as a goodwill gesture,” he said.

A previous 10-day truce announced by the militants was set to expire on Wednesday.

The cleric, Sufi Mohammad, who is also Maulana Fazlullah’s father-in-law, has been mediating between the government and the militants.

On Monday, he urged the militants to end the patrolling of streets and to allow the government to set up the Islamic courts they have been fighting for.

Swat has been the scene of bloody clashes between militants and government forces since November 2007. Officials say more than 1,200 civilians have been killed in fighting.

The Taleban have also destroyed nearly 200 schools, most of them for girls, during a sustained campaign against secular education in Swat.

An earlier peace agreement broke down in mid-2008.

The BBC’s Barbara Plett in Islamabad says there is concern that this peace deal will also not last, with some analysts believing the Taleban want to control territory, not just amend the legal system.

Earlier this month, the North West Frontier Province government signed an agreement with Sufi Mohammad’s proscribed Tanzim-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) for the implementation of a Sharia justice system in Swat.

Sufi Mohammad, who opposes militancy, led thousands of TNSM workers into Swat to set up a peace camp there and to start talks with Maulana Fazlullah.

Preconditions

The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan, who was recently in Swat, says the militants are now likely to close their checkpoints in the region as the first step towards the new justice system.

On Monday, the TNSM announced 10 preconditions for its successful implementation.

These included the evacuation of all schools and hospital buildings by the army and an end to all security checks that hamper the movement of people.

The TNSM has called on the government to station troops away from civilian areas.

The group has also called on both sides to release the prisoners they are holding and asked the government to call back to duty the policemen and paramilitary soldiers who were suspended due to desertion or absence from duty.

It urged the government to compensate families that suffered human and material losses and called on thousands of displaced people to return to their homes.

Taleban Swat truce ‘indefinite

“Should a decision of any kind be required, it will be made only via a meeting of the Security Cabinet and after taking into account all of the new political circumstances that have been created in the wake of the recent Israeli elections,” Yanki Galanti, the media adviser for Ehud Olmert, said Saturday night in a statement.

The consultations are to take place among Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Israel held elections Tuesday which resulted in a near-tie between Livni’s centrist Kadima party and the right-wing Likud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu. It is not yet clear who will emerge as prime minister.

Israel agreed January 21 to temporarily halt its three-week military operation in Gaza, which it began in response to repeated rocket attacks into southern Israel. Since then, Egypt has been trying to broker an agreement between the two sides.

On Friday, a spokesman for Hamas told CNN that Israeli and Hamas negotiators have “almost reached agreement” on a long-term truce.

Tahir Annono, who is in Cairo for the truce meetings, said there would be meetings Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday an announcement would be made.

Hamas’ deputy leader, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said that the truce would last for 18 months and all commercial border crossings between Gaza and Israel would be opened.

The security of Israelis who have been targets of the rocket attacks from Gaza and the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit are priorities as Israel considers the next steps in its conflict with Hamas, Olmert said Saturday through his media adviser.

Olmert has been under pressure to secure Shalit’s release as part of a broader cease-fire deal. However, the cease-fire in January did not include Shalit’s release as a condition.

Shalit was 19 when he was captured on June 25, 2006, by Palestinian militants in Gaza. They tunneled into Israel and attacked an Israeli army outpost near the Gaza-Israel-Egypt border, killing two other soldiers in the assault. Israel immediately launched a military incursion into Gaza to rescue him, but failed.

“We should like to emphasize that the security of residents of the south and the release of Gilad Shalit are currently at the top (of) Israel’s priorities,” the statement said.

Israel denies reports of Hamas negotiations

Meanwhile, rockets were fired into Israel on Friday, causing no damage or injuries, and Israeli warplanes struck the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, wounding two Popular Resistance Committee fighters.

Israel and Hamas had a six-month cease-fire mediated by Egypt starting last June, but it was repeatedly violated and after it ended Israel launched a three-week air, land and sea assault on Gaza aimed at stopping the rockets and weakening Hamas. Some 1,300 Palestinians were killed and thousands of buildings and homes destroyed. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, also died.

The new prospective accord, again being mediated by Egypt, is aimed at rebuilding Gaza after the war and involves both reconstruction and reconciliation between Hamas and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, according to Ismael Ridwan, a Hamas spokesman, who spoke by telephone after extensive talks between Egyptian and Hamas officials.

He said among the materials that would be allowed to flow into Gaza in the new arrangement were cement and steel, which Egypt would monitor. Those materials are desperately needed for rebuilding, but the agreement would not allow pipes, cables and chemicals that Israel fears could be used for bombs.

Israel wanted to include the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, seized and held by Hamas since the summer of 2006, but Hamas said that would happen only in a separate, if linked, deal that frees hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

The director of Hamas’s political bureau in Syria, Khaled Meshal, said that there was no agreement about Corporal Shalit and that Israel was trying to link his release with opening the border crossings into Gaza.

“We are opposed to that, and we have made that clear to the Egyptian authorities,” Mr. Meshal said in an interview on Libyan television. He was in Tripoli to thank the Libyan leader, Muammar el-Qaddafi, for his support of Hamas during the Gaza conflict.

Mr. Meshal’s deputy, Moussa Abu Marzouk, told the Egyptian state news agency late Thursday that an 18-month truce with Israel had been agreed on and that it would include opening the crossings into Gaza from Israel and would be announced within two days.

But the senior Israeli official, who plays a key role in such negotiations and speaks only on condition of anonymity, said that all of this was premature because Israel’s elections last Tuesday put off any serious consideration of Hamas’s offer and that consultations would not start again until next week.

“We are only allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, and that has not changed,” the Israeli official said. “Egypt has not yet come to us with the details of what it discussed with Hamas.” Amos Gilad, Israel’s negotiator with Egypt on the truce, is to head back to Cairo at the start of the coming week.

One big concern of Israel’s is guarantees that Hamas is not rearming through smuggling tunnels from Egypt or on the international arms market; Israeli officials will be looking for evidence in the new deal that such re-supplies have been stopped.

Hamas Sees Cease-Fire Within Days; Israel Demurs – NYTimes.com

They discussed Egypt’s efforts to broker a long-time ceasefire in the war-torn Gaza between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian factions, as well as the opening of the Gaza border crossings to allow humanitarian aid into the enclave, said Egypt’s official MENA news agency.

Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes on Sunday night on several targets in the Gaza Strip, including an empty Hamas police station and the borderline between Gaza and Egypt, wobbling the fragile temporary ceasefire roughly observed since Jan. 18.

According to MENA, Mubarak, Abbas and al-Faisal also reviewed the latest developments of the inter-Palestinian dialogue, which would lead to serious negotiations between Palestinians and Israel.

Abbas’ Cairo tour coincides with a Hamas delegation’s separate talks with Egyptian mediators on reaching a formal ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Earlier on Sunday evening, Abbas warned here that there will be no inter-Palestinian talks unless Hamas accepts the authority of the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Abbas told reporters at a press conference that “we make it clear that… no dialogue with those who rejects the Palestine Liberation Organization,” referring to the rival Hamas movement who took control of the Gaza Strip in a coup in June 2007.

“The organization (PLO) is the only representative of the Palestinians,” he added.

Egypt has proposed a “lasting” truce between Israel and Palestinian militant groups as of Feb. 5 and a fresh bout of the inter-Palestinian national unity dialogue on Feb. 22, which was boycotted by Hamas in November.

The Hamas move enraged Egypt, which held Hamas responsible for provoking the 22-day war and is trying to avail itself of the Gaza situation to prod the sluggish inter-Palestinian reconciliation.

“The inter-Palestinian rift had harmed a lot the Palestinian cause and led to the suffering of the people there,” Mubarak said, quoted by local magazine Police on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki warned Sunday that the international donors might think twice over Gaza reconstruction if the feud continues.

“If they (Palestinians) want a real international effort to help them… the only way is their reconciliation and unity,” Zakiwas quoted by the Egyptian Gazette.

After his stop in Cairo, Abbas is expected to fly to Paris for more talks with Europeans.

Mubarak meets Abbas, Saudi FM on Gaza, inter-Palestinian dialogue_English_Xinhua

The discussions took place in Egypt on the sidelines of meetings to try to cement a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

While tensions between Fatah and Hamas increased during Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza, analysts say both sides privately recognise the need for some kind of unity government.

Barbara Miller has our report.

BARBARA MILLER: There’s been no word from Hamas on talks with Fatah. But a Fatah official in Cairo Azzam al-Ahmad told reporters the two sides had met.

AZZAM AL-AHMAD (translated): We as Fatah, started meetings with the Hamas delegations that is here today. And I had a meeting with one of the Hamas leaders, a very long meeting to make the Palestinian dialogue easier.

BARBARA MILLER: Hamas defeated Fatah in parliamentary elections in 2006 and later became the senior partner in a national unity government.

But that broke down after Hamas seized control of Gaza a year and a half ago, and it’s ten months since the two sides last held talks.

Azzam al-Ahmad says the time for reconciliation had come.

AZZAM AL-AHMAD (translated): The time has come to bring an end to divisions and to speak in the language of understanding that is completely different from what existed before the Israeli aggression on Gaza.

BARBARA MILLER: Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza appeared on the surface to deepen the rift between the Palestinian factions.

ANTHONY BUBALO: Fatah have accused Hamas of basically being responsible of bringing on the Israeli attack on Gaza. Hamas have accused Fatah meanwhile of being virtually complicit in Israeli assaults.

BARBARA MILLER: But Anthony Bubalo the director of the West Asia programme at the Lowy Institute says privately the two sides acknowledge they need one another.

ANTHONY BUBALO: Fatah knows that it’s not going to be able to restore any kind of political foothold in Gaza on its own but it would have to, the only way to really do this is through some kind of unity government framework. Likewise, Hamas needs Fatah’s international connections to facilitate the rebuilding and reconstruction effort that has to take place in Gaza, that has to take place very quickly

BARBARA MILLER: Do you think then we may see some real steps towards a unity government being formed in the near future?

ANTHONY BUBALO: Look, I think it’s heading in that direction but there are a number of obstacles that will have to be overcome. Firstly Hamas and Fatah have virtually been at war with each other these many months and Hamas for example will demand that Fatah, which is basically controlling the West Bank stops closing the market institutions and arresting Hamas figures in the West Bank. And likewise Fatah will demand the same kind of repressive measures that Hamas is taking in Gaza against its people there but also that’s one kind of set of issues.

A second bigger set of issues is what the next few months in Gaza will be about, is who will win the fight to reconstruct. The Hamas have made it clear publically that they want any kind of international assistance for a Gaza channelled through its authority. But it’s going to be very, very difficult for Hamas to achieve that. So that’s the second set of issues.

BARBARA MILLER: Hamas rejects suggestions that it’s a terrorist organisation.

Ghazi Hamad is the former spokesman for the movement.

GHAZI HAMAD: The boycott, the dissolution of Hamas is not the solution. The best solution is to (inaudible) with Hamas to talk to these people. We are not radicals, we are not extremists. I think we are, we are a Palestinian movement, we want to achieve a kind of respect and dignity for our people.

BARBARA MILLER: But Israel and the US refuse to negotiate with Hamas.

Anthony Bubalo from the Lowy Institute says that might change if a national unity government were formed.

ANTHONY BUBALO: You’ve got Israeli elections coming up and no one will want to, at least publically, be giving any indication of a willingness to deal with Hamas in any way. Having said that, from a practical perspective, there is a need to deal with some central authority in Gaza, both Israel and the US will certainly be reluctant that it be Hamas on its own. But a Hamas-Fatah unity government might provide enough of a political fudge to serve their purposes. A least worst option.

BARBARA MILLER: Fatah says both sides will now consult their leadership about continuing the talks.

ELEANOR HALL: Barbara Miller reporting.

The World Today – Fatah and Hamas hold talks

Mr Blair, now a Middle East envoy, said there was a “basis” for an immediate ceasefire if the supply of arms into Gaza from Egypt was halted.

But Mr Blair warned of a “more protracted campaign” if firm action was not taken and said the people of Gaza were living through “hell”.

Israeli forces have continued to widen their ground attacks in Gaza.

‘Clear action’

According to Palestinian medical officials, at least 110 people have died since the ground offensive began while Israel says it has killed 130 Hamas fighters.

About 560 Palestinians have been killed since Israel moved to end rocket attacks from Gaza 11 days ago, Palestinian officials say.

Mr Blair, who represents the UN, EU, US and Russia in the Middle East, said he believed discussions between Egypt and Hamas about halting the supply of arms and money to militants in Gaza were critical to securing a ceasefire.

There needed to be “clear, definitive” action to bring this about, Mr Blair said, adding that he thought all sides were willing to discuss this.

“I think there are circumstances where we can get an immediate ceasefire and that is what people want to see,” he told the BBC.

Israel has insisted circumstances are not right for a ceasefire while rocket attacks continue to strike Israel.

Mr Blair, who has met Israeli leaders and senior Palestinian officials in recent days, called on Hamas to work towards a ceasefire to end the “appalling suffering” in Gaza.

Principles

“If they truly do care about about people in Gaza, there is a possible way that would have an immediate cessation of hostilities and that is obviously what any responsible person should try and achieve.

“For anyone living in Gaza, it is hell. It is bound to be. You are have got a situation where you are in an effective war zone.”

Only a “credible” political solution towards a Palestinian state could bring peace to the region, Mr Blair said, stressing that “real change” in conditions for people in Gaza was necessary to achieve this.

Discussions between the international community and Hamas were feasible, he said, but only if there were “some common principles of agreement”, namely Hamas’ willingness to give up violence.

He urged the new US administration of President-elect Barack Obama to focus on the Middle East peace process, saying the issue was “absolutely central” to global security.

“If we want to resolve this, we can,” he said.

“We have to grip it and sort it. If we do that with requisite dedication energy and commitment, we can resolve it.”

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Gaza solution is possible – Blair

The Malaysian peacekeepers are to leave on Sunday after the Philippines government pulled out of the latest peace talks with the indigenous Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf).

The two sides have failed to agree on the mandate of the peacekeepers.

The conflict has been continuing for more than four decades, with Milf emerging in the 1970s as the main group fighting an armed struggle to protect their ancestral land from occupation.

Fighting between the two sides escalated in July with aid agencies estimating that about 600,000 people have been forced to leave their homes since August.

Many are now living on hand-outs in evacuation centres in regions neighbouring Mindanao, a southern island in the Philippines and the country’s Muslim heartland, with others leaving the area altogether.

‘Ran from home’

Nasmiya moved her five children to Manila, the mainly Christian capital, two months ago from one of the worst affected areas.

“Moving is difficult but what is more difficult is when you are in the middle of a war, you don’t know where the bullets will hit,” she told Al Jazeera.

“The military attacked very close to our home. We ran out of the house, carrying my children.

“You don’t know where you’re going, you don’t know what destination to go to avoid the war.”

Al Jazeera’s Marga Ortigas said: “Life is not much easier for them here. Many who flee to the cities end up jobless or selling whatever they can in markets and on the streets. The lucky ones live off relatives.

“Some say it’s not easy being Muslim [in the capital], that they face discrimination.”

Way out of conflict

Make-shift schools in Manila have become oversubscribed with evacuees from Mindanao in the last three months.

But those who organise the schools and education for parents insist that they are necessary for those exposed to the fighting, to allow them to find a permanent way out of the conflict.

“When people feel helpless, their alternative is to get back at the parties that bring them such catastrophes and this is what we are trying to avoid,” Taha Basman, from the Centre for Moderate Muslims, said.

The Mindanao conflict first flared in the 1960s when the Muslim minority – known as the Moros – took up arms.

In 1977 that organisation split with the Milf forming a breakaway group fighting for political autonomy.

This July, the Milf and the Philippines government agreed to expand the existing Muslim autonomous region but President Arroyo suspended the talks, accusing the Milf of more violence.

Al Jazeera English

A U.N. panel of experts has suggested that Sudan delay elections due for July 2009 by at least four months because of expected heavy rains and logistical problems, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.

The first democratic poll in more than 20 years is to be held after a 2005 peace deal that ended a north-south civil war in Africa’s biggest country.

But a U.N. panel told the government of semi-autonomous south Sudan it might be better to push the election to the end of the year, or even into 2010, the U.N. regional coordinator for southern Sudan, David Gressly, told reporters.

Any delay could face opposition from southerners worried that they may also have to wait longer for a referendum on southern secession, promised in 2011 under the same north-south peace deal.

But Gressly said it would be impossible to run an election during south Sudan’s long rainy season which usually starts around June.

He added it would be problematic to get a poll going before the next rainy season, given delays in setting up key electoral legislation and bodies like the recently created electoral commission.

“We have provided our own guidance, proposing using the coming dry season (November to May) more for a registration process, and then the following one for elections and the following one after that for the referendum,” Gressly said.

He said the guidance, prepared at the request of south Sudan’s semi-autonomous government, did not amount to an official recommendation to change the election date.

He added that organisers also needed to factor in enough time to prepare voters for the complex elections that will involve up to 12 separate voting papers, covering ballots for everyone from the country’s president to members of state assemblies.

Both northern and southern leaders have so far publicly stressed the poll will take place before the July 2009 deadline.

Election Updates

In all, eight parties met behind closed doors at the U.N.’s European headquarters in Geneva for the one-day talks and agreed to meet again next month, EU representative Pierre Morel said.

“Today we have taken a big step forward,” Morel said. “All of the participants have recognized that the security situation remains quite unsatisfactory.”

The U.N. refugee agency estimates more than 30,000 people are still unable to return to their homes, and tensions in the region remain high.

“There are places where ethnic clashes and ethnic hatred still prevail,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin admitted.

His comments were mirrored by Georgia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria, who said he feared “ethnic cleansing in those occupied territories where ethnic Georgians still live.”

Morel said it was the first time that all of the parties had met directly. An initial attempt at negotiations broke down last month, in part over disagreements whether representatives from Georgia’s two breakaway provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, should take part.

Maxim Gvindzhiya of Abkhazia’s separatist government said his delegation and one from South Ossetia attended on an informal basis this time to keep the talks on track.

The other participants were the EU, the U.N., Russia, Georgia, the United States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said the talks “went far better” than last time.

“There were productive discussions of some of the tough issues. (But) there remain vast areas of fundamental differences,” Fried said. “There were and are a lot of people with guns … who just want to shoot.”

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the talks “a positive step.”

Russia, meanwhile, said it reiterated during the meeting that Georgia needs to pledge not to attack South Ossetia or Abkhazia, and that other countries should refrain from supplying Tbilisi with offensive military weapons.

Karasin said he came away with a “mixed” assessment of the meeting, but added now there is a “sense of hope.”

Johan Verbeke, special U.N. envoy for Georgia, said the sides had agreed on methods to demarcate borders and had begun work on security issues and the return of refugees.

“I’d call this a quantum leap,” said Verbeke. “All of the delegations did speak, all of the delegations listened.”

More than 160,000 people fled fighting that broke out Aug. 7 when Georgian forces launched an attack to regain control of South Ossetia. Russian forces repelled the attack, drove deep into Georgia, and stayed there for weeks.

Russia still has thousands of troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and has recognized both as independent nations.

Amnesty International has accused both sides of violating international law during the war.

The Associated Press:

Karzai said over the weekend he would “go to any lengths” to provide protection to Mullah Omar if the militant leader agrees to enter peace talks.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousif told CNN that Karzai’s offer is meaningless because he has to rely on the British and the Americans to provide his own security.

Yousif said his group would not negotiate peace as long as international forces remained in Afghanistan.

Karzai told reporters in Kabul on Sunday that if Mullah Omar is “willing to come to Afghanistan or to negotiate for peace and for the well-being of the Afghans, so that our children are not killed anymore, I, as the president of Afghanistan, will go to any length to provide him protection.”

He added that the international community has two choices if they disagree with his overture: either try to oust him, or leave.

A White House official Monday cast strong doubt on the willingness of the Taliban’s reclusive leader to spurn his group’s violent ways and back the Afghan government.

“No one has heard from Mullah Omar in sometime, and given attacks like last week’s when some Taliban threw acid on girls going to school, many don’t seem to show a willingness to negotiate,” said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe “We’re not seeing any indication from Mullah Omar that he is ready to renounce violence, break all ties to al Qaeda and support the Afghan government and constitution.”

Omar has been on the U.S. military’s most-wanted list since a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban rulers from Afghanistan in 2001. He is accused of harboring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the run-up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and the U.S. government has offered $10 million for information leading to his capture.

Karzai came to power with the support and backing of the international leaders he seems to be defying with his latest comments. In recent months, he has also taken the United States to task for mounting civilian casualties resulting from U.S. air strikes on apparent militant targets.

In September, Taliban representatives met with Afghan and Pakistani officials during a dinner hosted by Saudi Arabia’s king. All parties agreed that the only solution to Afghanistan’s conflict is through dialogue and not fighting, a source told CNN’s Nic Robertson.

The sides agreed on another round of talks in the Saudi city of Mecca in December, according to the source — who cannot be named because he is not allowed to speak publicly on this subject. The source has provided reliable information in the past.

The source said the Saudis believe Omar wants a commitment from Karzai to talk to the United States about phasing out U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Karzai has said foreign troops are necessary for Afghanistan’s security.

CNN.com