Ramallah, Sept 10: The Palestinian Parliament postponed a vote of confidence in Yasser Arafat's new cabinet today, a day after the Palestinian leader publicly condemned attacks on Israeli civilians, in a speech which received a lukewarm response from all quarters. With Arafat's own Fatah movement wavering about whether or not to back the new government line-up, the vote did not take place before the end of the session and was postponed till tomorrow, Parliament sources said.
Jamal shaati, a Fatah deputy from Jenin in the northern West Bank, said earlier that he and his colleagues would meet during the day to decide whether or not to lend their support to Arafat's cabinet, reshuffled in may under pressure from home and abroad to revamp his much-criticised administration.
"There is so far no decision from Fatah as a (parliamentary) bloc on how to vote, but I can say there's a trend not to vote for the government," he told reporters during the proceedings.

"This government is only an extension of the previous one and we have not seen any change so far. We are looking for fundamental change, which we have not seen any sign of."
Fatah's acting West Bank chief, Hussein Sheikh, who is not an MP, yesterday called for members to vote the cabinet down, saying the new line-up included ministers opposed to the two-year-old Palestinian uprising, or Intifada.
"This cabinet has ministers who are trying to prevent the Palestinian people struggling against the (Israeli) occupation, even by throwing stones," he said.
There are divisions within the parliament over whether the confidence vote should cover only the five new ministers or the entire cabinet. Bureau Report