Gaza's head of preventive security Rashid Abu Shbek also dismissed Israel's accusations that militants groups were using the truce they declared last month to build up their capacity, saying the prevailing quiet was enabling Palestinian security services to restore order.

"Israel is asking for us to disarm and crack down on (militant) groups now to sow internal divisions. It would love us to start killing one another," he said.

"If there is a real peace agreement and a political solution, we will then be in a position to act against such organizations," he added.

He pointed to "the year 1996 when the peace process was still alive."

"We did crack down on groups and confiscate weapons because people believed in peace, and violence made no sense," he recalled.

For the time being, he said his men were preventing anti-Israeli attacks in compliance with a security deal struck last month with Israel and following which the army withdrew from most its positions in the Gaza Strip.

To prove his point, Shbek said his forces had "arrested several people from organizations" and "engaged in armed clashes," with militants.

Relative quiet has however prevailed in the Gaza Strip since most armed groups declared a three to six-month truce with Israel on June 29.

Hamas political leader Abdelaziz al-Rantissi said he was confident Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas would "not give in to Israeli and American pressures to disarm."

Abbas is due to meet US President George W. Bush Friday on his first visit to the White House. Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will shortly follow with a July 29 meeting where he is likely to reiterate demands that armed groups be neutralized.

Rantissi said he had attended meetings with the Palestinian premier, before the truce announcement, "in which he said he would not confiscate weapons, conduct arrests because it would lead to a civil war."

And senior Islamic Jihad official Mohammed al-Hindi said there had been "an agreement not to seize weapons and arrest people between all Palestinian factions and Abbas' government."

The two hardline groups published a joint statement ten days ago saying they would end the truce if the Palestinian Authority attempted to confiscate their weapons.

Political commentator Hassan al-Kashef said he believed that US ally Egypt "was making Bush understand that Palestinians cannot presently disarm."

"Bush would like to see the roadmap succeed after the difficult situation he's facing in Iraq," he said.

The US-backed roadmap aims to bring an end to decades of violence between the Palestinians and Israelis before creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

"Egypt has no interest in seeing the violence flare up again. We're neighbors," said Rantissi.

Shbek said he was not aware of Abbas' guarantees but said that he would not "systematically collect weapons."

"But when we arrest people we suspect of wanting to plan attacks, we confiscate their weapons."

"We also go after unregistered weapons the same way we target drug dealers or people driving stolen or unregistered cars," he said.

"In fact we are using this period of quiet to rebuild our capacities," he said, citing his own preventive forces as an example and a recently created elite security force which falls under the ministry of interior and numbers 2,500 men split between the northern and southern Gaza Strip.

Israel has warned Palestinian authorities were failing to prevent Gaza militant groups from taking advantage of the truce to build up their weaponry and personnel.

"It's with chaos that such organizations flourish, not when we are trying to establish order," protested Abu Sbhek.

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