President Yasser Arafat asked the Palestinian parliament on Tuesday to endorse Prime Minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas and his new cabinet. The proposed government, the product of intense international and internal pressure on Arafat to yield powers and institute democratic reforms, includes allies of the Palestinian leader as well as critics. "I call on you to vote confidence in the new government headed by my brother and lifelong friend Abu Mazen," Arafat told a session of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, sat next to Arafat in the parliamentary chamber after walking into the hall together in a show of unity.

The United States has said that after the cabinet is confirmed, it would release the "road map," a staged plan it drafted with the United Nations , the European Union and Russia that paves the way for a Palestinian state by 2005.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat attends a meeting at his office in the West Bank City of Ramallah April 28, 2003. Arafat insisted on Monday he would not be sidelined by a Palestinian political shakeup and said his old nemesis, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon , was not ready to pay the price for peace. (Osama Silwadi/Reuters)