Powell: Israeli-Palestinian cooperation good
Both sides prepare for election to find Arafat's successor
 |  U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Tuesday |
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 Colin Powell visits the Mideast for the first time in 18 months.
 Powell meets with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
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SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (CNN) -- Cooperation between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority in advance of the Palestinian election to replace Yasser Arafat has been good so far, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday at an international conference in Egypt.
The Palestinians have said they need financial help with the election and have complained that Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has created difficulties with registration, campaigning and -- potentially -- for voting, which is scheduled for January 9.
Powell said that both sides had agreed that the best way for Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to take part in the election is to use the model from the 1996 Palestinian Authority elections. At that time, Palestinians of East Jerusalem were canvassed and registered for voting and then voted by mail.
Powell's comments came after meeting at the conference with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana about the Mideast peace process. In addition to the EU and United States, the United Nations and Russia also belong to the so-called Quartet -- brokers of the "road map" to Mideast peace.
The road map calls for a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism, an Israeli freeze on settlement activity, resumption of peace talks and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Powell said he expressed condolences on Arafat's death to Palestinian leaders during a meeting Monday in the West Bank. "Now it is time to move forward" with reforms in the Palestinian leadership, Powell said Tuesday.
He said he has been impressed with the way the Palestinians have reorganized themselves in the wake of Arafat's death. Arafat -- the Palestinian Authority president -- died from an unknown illness November 11 at a French hospital.
Powell said he told Israeli officials Monday that the opportunity for movement in the peace process "should be seized by them as well."
"So far there is good cooperation between the two parties," Powell said Tuesday. "They are both committed to the road map, and the first step ahead of us is to have good, full, free, solid elections on the ninth of January for a new president of the Palestinian Authority." (Full story)
Powell, who has announced he is stepping down, is expected to serve as secretary of state until his replacement is sworn in. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice has been nominated as Powell's replacement.
The Egypt conference -- which focused on Iraq -- brought together roughly 20 nations, including Iraq's neighbors Iran, Syria, Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as well as the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. (Full story)
New political landscape
EU foreign affairs chief Solana said, "We are going to recoup the momentum that we lost" and take advantage of the new political landscape following the death of Arafat.
The EU is talking daily with the Palestinians and Israelis "to create conditions so that the election can take place in a just and fair manner," Solana said.
Solana also said that a conference of donors, scheduled for December in Oslo, Norway, is expected to propose ways to cooperate to help the election and to plan for the future in the Palestinian territories.
Britain's Straw, who is scheduled to travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories after the Egyptian conference, said the Quartet will continue to press both sides to create a "decent environment" for the election.
He said he would also talk to them about cooperating when Israel conducts its planned military and settlement withdrawal from Gaza and its pullout of four small settlements in the West Bank.
Cooperation is important "so as not to create a vacuum, but to create the opportunity for a civil society" in Gaza following the Israeli withdrawal, Straw said.
In the aftermath of Arafat's death, Britain has reached for a more prominent role in the Mideast peace process. Earlier this month, British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the world's "single most pressing political challenge." The conflict also was a main topic of discussion between Blair and President Bush during the prime minister's recent visit to the White House.
