RAMALLAH, 24 April 2003 — Palestinian President Yasser Arafat bowed yesterday to key Cabinet demands from his reformist premier-designate, clearing the way for the release of an international plan to tackle 30 months of Middle East bloodshed.

With world leaders urging him to back down, Arafat suddenly yielded to Mahmoud Abbas’ key demands and allowed his Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) number two to take the Interior Ministry and appoint Mohammed Dahlan as his security chief.

The United States swiftly said it welcomed the deal and looked forward to working with Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen.

“We welcome the announcement that Palestinian prime minister-designate Abu Mazen has formed a Cabinet list for submission to the Palestinian Legislative Council,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

“We look forward to speedy confirmation by the Palestinian Legislative Council. The US also looks forward to working with Abu Mazen and with the Israelis.”

The dramatic turnabout in the Palestinian power struggle came just six hours before a deadline for Abu Mazen to announce the new ministerial lineup or step aside for a new prime minister.

Officials said the Palestinian Parliament would probably be convened on Sunday or Monday to vote on the new Cabinet, which reformists and the world community hope will sweep out corruption, crack down on militants and open the way for renewed peace talks with Israel.

Although the two leaders agreed on the Cabinet, officials said the final announcement could take a day or two as they finetune the list to ensure its passage through Parliament.

Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina called on US President George W. Bush to make good on his promise to publish the international “road map”, a peace plan to establish Palestinian statehood by 2005, immediately following the breakthrough.

“After overcoming the obstacles in the formation of a new Cabinet, we ask the international community to push Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories and for the quartet to immediately implement the road map” drawn up by US, UN, EU and Russian diplomats, he said.

EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana hailed the breakthrough and called for the “immediate publication” of the road map, but in Washington officials said they were awaiting official confirmation.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, on a visit to Amman, said the road map should be published once the new government takes office.

Arafat and Abbas came out of the Palestinian leader’s office and shook hands, smiling, after the deal pushed through by Egyptian envoy Omar Suleiman, who was sent by President Hosni Mubarak to break the stalemate after Abbas walked out of talks on Saturday and said he would not come back.

Nabil Shaath, who will be reinstated as minister for international cooperation, said that Mubarak had talked on the phone during the meeting between Arafat and Suleiman, the head of Egypt’s intelligence service.

Dahlan, Abbas’ nominee whose appointment Arafat had stubbornly refused until only a few hours before a deadline of midnight (2100 GMT), joined the two leaders when they met for the first time in five days in Arafat’s battle-scarred compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

“Dahlan will be state minister for security affairs,” said presidential secretary Tayeb Abdelrahim, adding that Abbas himself would be interior minister as well as premier.

The lineup marks a major victory for the reformist premier and a severe blow for Arafat, who had rejected the formula backed by the international community.

Officials said the deal meant that Dahlan, who fell out with Arafat last year, will attend Cabinet meetings.

Dahlan, who quit his job as Gaza security chief after his row with Arafat, is considered one of the few men willing and able to take on the powerful hard-line groups attacking Israel.

Shaath played down the sudden collapse by Arafat, who had been struggling to cling on to control of the key security forces in the biggest leadership challenge in 20 years.

“No one has lost, this was a win for the Palestinian people,” he said, although the stepdown by Arafat was likely to be seen by the international community as a first stage in sidelining the veteran leader.

Abbas’ calls for a suspension of attacks have angered radical fighters, especially the hard-line group Hamas.

Hamas’ political leader Abdelaziz Al-Rantissi warned the new Cabinet not to take on the fighters who have used bombers, gunmen and home-made rockets to attack Israel.

“If this Cabinet resists and makes war against the occupation, we will welcome it, but if this Cabinet makes war against the mujahedeen, we will not welcome it,” he told AFP, using the Arabic term for holy warriors. To underscore his words, activists fired a homemade rocket from Gaza into southern Israel, hitting the town of Sderot but causing no injury or damage.

A Palestinian man was killed and two others injured yesterday when a mystery explosion rocked a village near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

The blast killed preventive security member Shibli Al-Tamusi, 34, Palestinian officials said. Israeli security sources said he was a member of Hamas and was killed by his own bomb.