Palestinian security forces took control in abandoned Jewish settlements in Gaza yesterday, ending two days of anarchy following Israel's withdrawal from the territory.

Security sources said Palestinian and Egyptian police halted a deluge of travellers over the nearby border with Egypt that Israel condemned, saying Gaza militants opposed to peace efforts could exploit the disorder to smuggle in weaponry.

The former Gush Katif settlement bloc in south Gaza looked largely deserted yesterday aside from Palestinian security units. Gone were the legions of Palestinian revellers, looters and armed militants.

But crowds were expected to return to Neve Dekalim later in the day for an official mass Palestinian Authority celebration to be addressed by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas and Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, who toured the tumult in the vacated enclaves on Tuesday, implored Palestinians to stop the chaos and start rebuilding to show the world they deserve a future state.

Chaos erupted along the border after Monday's withdrawal as tens of thousands of Palestinians, no longer deterred by a lethal Israeli army buffer strip, clambered walls into Egypt and flooded cheap Egyptian town markets and appliance shops.

But Palestinian and Egyptian police clamped down early yesterday, restricting access to seven informal crossing points, security sources and witnesses said.

A top Abbas aide told an Israeli newspaper that Abbas plans to disarm militants in the near future, beginning with his own Fatah group's armed wing.

Although the aide, Rafiq Husseini, provided no timetable, it was the first indication that Abbas would begin to deal with the issue.

However, a radical Palestinian group said yesterday it would reject demands by Abbas for all armed groups to disband immediately after parliament elections in January.

In a statement issued in Damascus, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine said "statements that discredit the weapons of the (Palestinian) resistance are rejected as our people have a legitimate right in combating occupation by all means so long as one span of our land is still occupied and one (Israeli) settler is still on our lands or crossings."

(China Daily September 15, 2005)