LONDON, 9 March 2004 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei called on Britain and the United States yesterday to re-engage in his people’s conflict with Israel to push forward the peace process which he said was at a crucial stage.

“Today the Palestinian-Israeli conflict may be arriving at the rare positive turning point in the history of this long struggle,” Qorei said in a lecture at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.

“This depends really on the proper performance of the international community...they should be able to cope with reform of the greater Middle East by looking into the reality of the existing problems of the region,” he said. Persistent violence has sidelined a US-backed peace road map and Israel blames the Palestinian leadership’s failure to rein in militants for the impasse.

Qorei warned time was running out for the “two-state solution” envisaged in the road map to which he was committed and he said he would meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon only if they were likely to reach a breakthrough.

“Moderates and forces for peace are losing credibility as time passes,” he said.

Qorei called on the leaders of the G-8 group of the world’s industrial powers to try to speed up the peace process.

“There is no doubt that such an important international approach will revive the road map,” he said, adding the US would be a key player.

“Without the US, it is impossible to have peace,” he said.

He wanted a return to the peace negotiations without the separation wall and settlement expansion.

Israel’s Sharon plans unilateral moves to evacuate most settlements in Gaza and to retrench behind new “security lines” in what he calls a bid to defuse conflict.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian yesterday as he worked with his father in their family’s fields near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses and medics said.

Israeli military sources said they were unaware of any gunfire from the Morag settlement. The incident took place a day after Israeli forces raided two Gaza refugee camps, killing 14 Palestinians including three boys.

Palestinian security sources said 16-year-old Khaled Madi was killed by Israeli Army fire. He was helping his father in their fields in southern Gaza during a school holiday when he was shot in the head.