RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) – West Bank lawlessness won’t end until Israel hands over control of cities there, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday, calling on Israel to return to the transfer talks that were suspended after a Tel Aviv suicide bombing.

Israel had promised to hand over five cities after a Feb. 8 cease-fire declaration but suspended talks after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed five Israelis at a Tel Aviv night club last weekend.

“We have no control on the ground,” Abbas told reporters in Ramallah.

Israeli officials said there would be no more talks until the Palestinians find those behind the Feb. 25 Tel Aviv bombing, and they accused Abbas of dragging his feet. Islamic Jihad leaders claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abbas, Palestinians officials said, will go to Washington at the end of the month to meet President Bush, making him the first Palestinian leader to visit the U.S. capital since the outbreak of Palestinian-Israeli violence in September 2000. The United States refused to deal with Abbas’s predecessor, Yasser Arafat, accusing him of fomenting violence.

No exact date has been set for the visit, the official said on condition of anonymity. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice invited Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Washington during her visit to the region last month.

In a positive sign that efforts to make peace are alive, Jordan’s foreign minister arrived in Israel Saturday for the first time since the Palestinian uprising started. Speaking after a meeting with his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom, al-Muqli urged both sides to reach a comprehensive peace deal.

“We have to stop the terror right away, we have to make peace right away,” he said, adding that peace between Israel and the Palestinians would quickly lead to peace for Israel with other Arab states.

Earlier in the day al-Mulqi met with Abbas in Ramallah. Al-Mulqi said he had discussed ways to boost security cooperation with the Palestinians, including sending over Jordanian trained forces.

Abbas, who has been under pressure from Israel and the United States to crack down on militants, said Palestinian forces would only be effective once Israeli troops leave West Bank cities.

“Nobody can say we hold responsibility for the situation because we do not have a presence in the cities,” he said.

Abbas has been trying to persuade armed men to disarm, resisting calls from Israel to forcibly disarm them if necessary. But many of the militants have become virtual rulers of the Palestinian cities during the last four years of violence and are reluctant to give up their power.

The militant groups have undermined recent attempts by Abbas to impose control, twice firing on Palestinian officials and police officers in the last week.

But Abbas moved to impose some order Saturday, sending police into a village near the West Bank city of Hebron to arrest people who burned three Palestinian police cars Friday.

“Last night criminals in the Dura village burned police cars and public property and today we went to arrest them,” said Ibrahim Ramadan, head of the Palestinian preventative security in Hebron.

Ramadan said 12 people were arrested and that police found a number of bullets and a tear gas canister during the raid. He denied reports that weapons and bombs were found.

Abbas said the two sides must move ahead with transferring control of the cities.

“The Israelis have stopped the talks and we call on them to resume the dialogue as soon as possible,” Abbas said.

Israeli officials said Abbas must find the bombing conspirators before talks resume, adn noted that the bomber in Tel Aviv came from a a village near Tulkarem, one of the first places slated for transfer.

“We are waiting to hear the results of the (Palestinian) investigation” said Sharon spokesman Assaf Shariv.”We are waiting to see what he (Abbas) will do, so far it is not a lot.”

Abbas said the Palestinians continued to investigate the attack “despite the fact it was orchestrated from places which we have no responsibility” for.

Islamic Jihad leaders claimed responsibility for the Tel Aviv bombing but blamed the attack on a local rogue cell working on orders from the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and not from Islamic Jihad leaders in the Palestinian areas. Israel and the United States said the bombing was planned in Syria.

Abbas said he had no information linking Syria to the attack.

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