Thu Apr 17, 4:05 AM ET

Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo!

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is pressing Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian cities and ease restrictions on travel and work to help a new Palestinian administration get on its feet, the New York Times reported.

AFP Photo

The US requests, which also included a speedier turnover of tax revenues to Palestinian authorities, came Tuesday in a White House meeting between US officials and two top aides of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), the daily said.

"We've told Israel the kind of steps they need to take to get the peace process going again," an unnamed administration official told the Times. "The Israelis have gone off to consider what they can do. I suspect we will have to accept less than 100 percent delivery on some of them."

Officials said the goal of the US pressure is to bolster new Palestinian Premier Mahmud Abbas when he takes office by next week.

Israeli officials told the Times Sharon is considering the steps urged by Washington, as well as some of his own, including the possible release of Palestinian prisoners. But they told the daily Israel would not pull back troops from Palestinian areas, except perhaps symbolically, without actions to disarm groups that have carried out attacks on Israeli civilians.

Email Story   Post/Read Msgs (3)   Print Story Ratings: Would you recommend this story? Not at all 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 Highly