By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he does not believe al-Qaida cells are operating in Gaza or the West Bank, countering claims made by Israel's president earlier this week.
"I don't think that there are cells of al-Qaida in Gaza," Abbas told Associated Press Television News in an interview on the sidelines of the World Summit on the Information Society.
President Moshe Katsav, during a visit to Italy this week, had said that al-Qaida had set up operations in Gaza after his country's pullout.