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Date set to convene Palestine National Council

GAZA: The Palestine National Council (PNC) will convene on Monday, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee said on Saturday.

Many of the 450 members of the PLO's parliament in exile will meet to discuss deleting or changing parts of the 1964 charter calling for Israel's destruction, a key Israeli demand for continuing peace moves with the Palestinians.

Under an accord with Israel in September that expanded Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank, the PNC has until May 7 to amend the charter.

Israel has issued entry and resident permits to PNC members living abroad to attend the convention, including to members of rejectionist groups opposed to the PLO's 1993 interim peace deal with Israel.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres this week that he would try to push a charter change through the PNC, but he could not guarantee it. Amending the charter will be one issue among 10 on the agenda, PNC speaker Salim al-Zaanoun has said.

An executive committee member said last week that since Israel postponed its promised redeployment from the West Bank town of Hebron, the Palestinians also had the right to vary deadlines.

Israel froze the Hebron redeployment after a nine-day spate of suicide bombings by the militant Islamic Hamas group in February and March that killed 59 people in Israel.

On Saturday, Hamas urged PNC members not to take part in the meeting unless the Authority released suspected Islamic activists and their supporters arrested in a crackdown after the suicide attacks.

In a statement to an international news organisation, the group also rejected any changes to the covenant.

"Cancelling the charter, regardless of the fact that it has been nullified in all practicality (by the peace deal), is an attempt to erase the collective memory of Palestinian history," the Hamas statement said.-Reuter