Israel and the Palestinians took tentative steps toward meeting their first obligations under a peace plan yesterday, a day after affirming their commitment to the three-phase document at a US-sponsored Mideast summit.

　　Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas prepared to meet with Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, and hopes to extract a pledge from them within a week to halt attacks on Israelis, a senior Palestinian official said.

　　Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met with army commanders yesterday to prepare for dismantling 12 to 15 settlement outposts in the West Bank, the Haaretz daily said.

　　The ministry confirmed the meeting, but declined comment on what was discussed.

　　The first outposts will be removed in the coming days, said Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

　　About 100 outposts, consisting of a few mobile homes each, have been set up by settlers on West Bank hilltops in the past five years to thwart land-for-peace agreements. At Wednesday's summit in the Jordanian Red Sea resort of Aqaba, under the auspices of US President George W. Bush, Sharon said he would start removing outposts, but did not say how many.

　　The peace plan calls for dismantling those established since March 2001, when Sharon took office.

　　The Maariv daily yesterday quoted Sharon as saying he had disagreements with the United States over the outposts.

　　Implementation of the so-called "road map" to Palestinian statehood by 2005 will be supervised by international monitors, with the United States taking the lead.

　　A contingent of 12 to 15 CIA and US State Department officials was to arrive in the region by today, said Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath.

　　In Israel and the Palestinian areas, opposition to the peace plan was strong.

　　Leaders of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad accused Abbas of selling out. At Wednesday's summit, Abbas pledged to end the "armed intefadeh," renounced "terrorism against the Israelis wherever they might be" and alluded to the disarming of militants.

　　Despite their criticism, Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials said yesterday they were willing to hear the prime minister's proposals, but insisted the groups would not lay down their arms. The militant groups have killed hundreds of Israelis in shootings and bombings in the past 32 months of fighting.