Members of a restive Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) were set to meet here today with new Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, who is insisting he can work with Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon and secure a ceasefire.

Qorei and six other members of his cabinet were sworn in by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Tuesday but there has been unease among MPs that the government has been foisted on them.

However members of the Palestinian parliament decided late yesterday there was no need for a vote of confidence in the new government and its political programme, saying it was already acceptable under Palestinian law.

"We agreed between us and the members in the West Bank that there will be no confidence vote on Abu Ala's government or its programme because this government is acceptable under Palestinian law," MP and former justice minister Abdul Karim Abu Salah said, using Qorei's nom-de-guerre.

"There is no need for a vote," he said, following a meeting here with the PLC's Gaza-based members.

Qorei was appointed in a presidential decree by Arafat that also ushered in emergency rule for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

That decision caused consternation in the parliamentary ranks.

Kadura Fares, an MP for the mainstream Fatah movement, said that while the law allowed for emergency rule there was no provision for an emergency government.

"There has been a great deal of opposition among Fatah and PLC (Palestinian Legislative Council) members against the forming of the emergency government and we are now waiting to have an ordinary rather than emergency government," he said.

Independent MP Hanan Ashrawi also criticised the Palestinian leadership for failing to justify the imposition of emergency law.

"There is not a need for an emergency government," she said.

"The only way out of a crisis is by resorting to law and legal institutions and not by bypassing them.

Salah said the parliament would use today's meeting to vote on the next leader of the PLC, after Qorei stepped down to take up the premiership.

All of the Gaza-based members, around 35, had received Israeli authorisation to travel to Ramallah on Thursday, but it was unlikely those based in the southern towns of Khan Yunis or Rafah would be able to attend, given the roadblocks and travel difficulties within the Strip, he said.

Arafat was set to attend the parliamentary session, a senior aide said late yesterday, dismissing a newspaper report that the Palestinian leader had suffered a heart attack.

"He is in good health and tomorrow will attend the PLC session in his compound," Nabil Abu Rudeina told reporters outside the veteran leader's battered headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

A source close to the Palestinian leader said that Arafat met here late yesterday with a Turkish consular representative and denied reports he had been examined by a team of Egyptian doctors.

Arafat announced the imposition of emergency law in the wake of a suicide attack in the northern Israeli city of Haifa that left 19 people dead as well as the Palestinian bomber.

That attack prompted new calls from some Israeli ministers to carry through threats to expel the veteran leader from his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Qorei said in an interview published yesterday that he believes he can work with Israeli Prime Minister Sharon and secure a ceasefire, which he has made the top priority of his government.

"I am willing to begin negotiations with Israel immediately, and I believe that I can work with Sharon," Qorei told Israel's Maariv paper.

"There is a chance of making a genuine difference and reaching achievements. I intend to work with your government and achieve a ceasefire. Give us a chance and an opportunity to prevent the deterioration from continuing".

Israel has frozen all talks with the Palestinians since a massive suicide bus bomb on August 19 in Jerusalem, arguing that the attack was a consequence of a failure by the Palestinian Authority to crack down on hardliners.

Sharon's government's has made clear that it will only consider Qorei as a partner in the peace process if he shows a determination to confront groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Meanwhile the violence continued on the ground.

Three Israeli soldiers were wounded late yesterday as Palestinian gunmen opened fire on their vehicle near the West Bank town of Nablus, Israeli military said.

Elsewhere a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was critically wounded in the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya when Israeli forces opened fire on two children throwing stones, Palestinian medical and security sources said. – Sapa-AFP.