PALESTINE: Entirely overshadowed by the war in Iraq, the incoming first Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is quietly assembling his first ministerial team.
He is confident that, once it is in place, the White House, Downing Street and the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem will open their doors to him in an effort to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
In the Gaza city of Khan Younis yesterday, emissaries of Saddam Hussein distributed 21 cheques worth $10,000 each to families who have recently lost relatives in the intifada conflict with Israel, at a ceremony attended by a senior local PA official.
A spokesman for the Arab Liberation Front, which has overseen the distribution of over $35 million in such Iraqi handouts, said it was important to Saddam's regime to be seen to be continuing to support the intifada.
Such financial largesse has helped Saddam maintain widespread popularity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as reflected pro-Saddam demonstrations and coverage of the war in the Palestinian media that has highlighted scepticism about US and British claims of dramatic progress and reflected Palestinian solidarity with the Iraqi people.
But in stark contrast to 1991, when the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat publicly aligned his cause with that of Saddam, the PA is proving more circumspect this time, and Mr Abbas hopes to be an early beneficiary. President Bush and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, have both taken pains to stress, even as the war in Iraq has intensified, that they are determined to soon return their focus to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, and are pinning hopes for progress on the so-called "road map" - a framework designed to give the Palestinians viable independent statehood within three years.
While Mr Bush has steadfastly refused to host Mr Arafat at the White House, having last year branded the Arafat regime as being "compromised by terrorism", US officials have made clear that Mr Abbas would be most welcome.
Tellingly, Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, has maintained intermittent contact with Mr Abbas even at the height of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and his government has cautiously welcomed Mr Abbas's ascent to the Palestinian premiership.
Mr Abbas yesterday held talks in Gaza with officials from Hamas and other rejectionist factions,in an effort to try and reach understandings with them on an intifada truce, to no apparent avail.
Israeli officials say privately that they hope to see men like Mohammad Dahlan, Mr Arafat's former head of security in the Gaza Strip and an advocate of firmer action against Hamas and other factions to prevent suicide bombings and shooting attacks on Israeli civilians, restored to key positions of power under Mr Abbas.