RAMALLAH, West Bank, 20 January 2005 — New Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has fired dozens of advisers to late leader Yasser Arafat, the first sign of a big shake-up since he was elected, officials said yesterday.

Abbas is under pressure at home and abroad to clean up the structures bequeathed by Arafat, who died on Nov. 11 after decades as leader of the Palestinian fight for a state.

Officials said Abbas had fired 50 of 55 civilian and military advisers — though well over 1,000 staff were still employed by Arafat’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“It’s an empire,” said one official. “This is an important step that will be followed by more such changes to make administrative and security reforms.”

The names of those fired were not immediately available. Reforms are seen as key for a big increase in donor funding for the Palestinian Authority as well as prospects for talks with Israel.

The style of Abbas, an urbane former businessman, is very different from that of charismatic ex-guerrilla leader Arafat, who had faced an upsurge of demands for internal change in the months before his death.

Abbas sticks by Arafat’s key positions for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and for a “right of return” to homes in what is now Israel for Palestinian refugees. But he has called for an end to a 4-year-old uprising to allow renewed talks with Israel.

In another development, Abbas has told a Bratislava newspaper that he would like to strengthen relations with Slovakia and visit the country “at the proper moment”.

Abbas, who took office Saturday, was interviewed in Ramallah for a story published yesterday in the daily Pravda. “We have a tradition of friendly relations with Slovakia that’s now lasted decades,” Abbas was quoted as saying.

“Thus, it is logical that we are interested in expanding our mutual relations. Consequently, we plan to visit Slovakia at the proper moment.”

Slovakia’s ties to the Palestinian National Authority date from the era of Soviet communism, when the country was part of the former Czechoslovakia.

In the 1970s and 1980s the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia supported the Palestinian Liberation Organization with weapons and fighter training. Today’s democratic Slovakia, which joined NATO and the European Union last year, strives for good relations with the Palestinians as well as Israel.

Meanwhile, the outgoing Danish head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said he had offered to stay on, but UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declined the offer, Information newspaper reported in Copenhagen yesterday.

“You have to ask Kofi Annan and his staff about the reason. I offered to stay on longer, if that was desirable, but it was not,” Peter Hansen, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), told the daily.

Hansen is one of the top UN officials due to leave in the wake of a recent shake-up announced by Annan.

The Dane said he did not want to speculate on Annan’s decision. But during his nine-year tenure Hansen has had several publicized spats with Israel.

One of the more recent ones centered on Israeli allegations, later retracted, that militant Palestinians used UNRWA ambulances to smuggle rockets.

“There were groups in Israel including human rights groups and others, that wanted me to stay on. But there is no secret that others have ignored other statements I have made,” Hansen said. Hansen’s term expires at the end of March.