By Adam Entous JERUSALEM, May 2 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will deploy hundreds of members of his security forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin as early as Saturday, expanding a Western-backed campaign to bolster statehood talks. Palestinian, Israeli and Western officials said the law-and-order campaign would include elements from Abbas's Presidential Guard, some of whom received training in Jordan under a U.S.-funded programme, as well as members of Abbas's National Security Forces and the Palestinian civil police. Up to 500 of Abbas's men will be deployed in all, they said. Jenin, long a militant bastion and the site of a bloody battle with Israeli forces in 2002, will be a high-profile test of Abbas's ability to exert security control, an issue at the heart of U.S. efforts to secure a statehood deal this year. Washington sees the Jenin deployment as a proving ground that could help the Palestinians make their case for statehood. Israel has said it will not implement any peace agreement until the Palestinians show they can rein in militants. With soaring unemployment, Jenin's security campaign would be accompanied by a series of economic development projects, officials said. Washington wants to show progress on security and economic development in the occupied West Bank before U.S. President George W. Bush visits Israel later this month. One Palestinian security source in Jenin said Abbas's forces would be authorised to enter Jenin's volatile refugee camp and other areas that have been off-limits to Palestinian forces. An Israeli security official said Palestinian forces, totalling 470 men, would arrive in Jenin from Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron. "We are coordinating the deployment," he said. In addition to moving the forces, Israeli sources said a new police station would be opened in the Jenin area on Saturday. WILDCARD U.S.-backed peace talks were launched in November with the goal of reaching a statehood deal before Bush leaves office in January, but Washington says neither side is doing enough to meet their obligations under a peace "road map." Israel is meant to halt settlement activity and remove Jewish outposts, while the Palestinians combat militants. Security has already improved in Jenin since militants from Abbas's Fatah faction began turning in weapons as part of a government-sponsored amnesty programme coordinated with Israel. Hundreds of Hamas members were jailed by Palestinian forces in Jenin after the Islamist group's takeover of the Gaza Strip last June, but most of them were freed after turning in weapons and pledging not to fight Abbas's government. Most Fatah militants say they will go along with Abbas, but Islamic Jihad, hard hit by an Israeli crackdown, is a wildcard. The Bush administration sees the Jenin deployment as a chance to correct some of the shortcomings exposed during Abbas's initial security crackdown in nearby Nablus. That operation improved security in Nablus but was undercut but frequent Israeli army raids and tight travel restrictions on Palestinian forces, as well as a shortage of supplies, prison space and barracks, Palestinian and U.S. officials said. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has emphasised that even after the Jenin deployment, "ultimate security responsibility will remain in Israel's hands." (Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Wael al-Ahmed in Jenin; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Palestinians take part in a play in commemoration of Nakba Day "The Day of Catastrophe" during a rally in Gaza May 1, 2008. Palestinians will mark Nakba on May 15 as ...
