President George W. Bush will insist that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismantle all terrorist networks in Palestinian areas when they meet at the White House on Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a speech. Rice added that Bush will push Abbas to meet commitments made.

The statement coincided with top Palestinian officials announcing that parliamentary elections must be delayed, fanning a crisis between the up-and-coming Hamas and Palestinian Abbas' ruling Fatah movement, which fears it will get trounced if the vote is held as planned on July 17.

The election commission said once Parliament passes a long overdue election law, it will need at least two more months to prepare for the vote. Hamas, which has threatened to cancel a four-month cease-fire with Israel over the dispute, said the Palestinian Authority is trying to bypass the people.

Also Monday, a high-level Egyptian delegation arrived in Gaza to try to defuse another Hamas-Fatah crisis - this one over local elections.

In a rousing pro-Israel speech at a policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Rice said: "The president will be clear that there are commitments to be met, that there are goals to be met."

She said Israel had obligations as well, and that Bush, having shunned Yasser Arafat, will build with Abbas "a relationship that is based on the good faith that only democratic leaders can bring."

Rice called on the Palestinian leadership to "advance democratic reforms and dismantle all terrorist networks in it society."

She also pleased her audience by suggesting Israel could not be expected to negotiate peace terms if terror and authoritarian rule were not curbed in the Middle East.

"America and Israel had tried before to gain peace where democracy did not exist and we are not going down that road again," she said.

Abbas was standing aloof from the parliamentary election dispute, though he is a major player in it. The delay ostensibly results from a disagreement over the system of elections. Abbas wants proportional elections, with all the Palestinian territories voting together, while the Fatah-dominated Parliament last week approved a system of two-thirds of the 88 legislators from districts and the rest through party slates. Instead of approving the law, Abbas wants changes - forcing a delay.

In a statement, the commission said "it needs two months, after the ratifying the law, to prepare for the elections."

Just beneath the surface is a common, if unstated, desire by most Fatah members to put off the voting, though no one wants to take blame for the delay.

Hamas, fielding candidates for the first time, is expected to tap into voter disaffection with 10 years of Fatah rule tainted by corruption and nepotism.

Pressing its advantage, the group is threatening to torpedo Abbas' main accomplishment up to now - the cease-fire, declared February 8 at a summit in Egypt with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Hamas signed on to the truce at follow-up talks in Cairo that included fixing the parliamentary election for July 17. Hamas officials say that was a package deal - if the election date is changed, the truce could be canceled.

Mohammad Ghazal, a Hamas spokesman in the West Bank, said the delay would mean Abbas' Palestinian Authority "is working on its own, not with the grass roots Palestinian political forces, and that will push the factions to work in their own ways."

In the other dispute, Mustafa Buhairi, a deputy to Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, arrived in Gaza on Monday to mediate between Fatah and Hamas over results of local elections, where Hamas scored impressive victories.

That dispute began after a special court, formed to settle election appeals, ordered a partial revote in three large communities. Hamas won a majority in all three councils in May 4 elections, but Fatah alleged there were voting irregularities.

Also Monday, Israeli security officials said Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz planned to meet with the Palestinian security chief, Interior Minister Nasser Yousef, to discuss Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and a recent flare-up of violence in Gaza, which subsided Saturday.

Israel will turn the Gaza-Egypt border over to the Egyptians if they stop Palestinian arms smuggling, Sharon said Monday during a trip to the United States. - AP

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