The last step before the handover was set for Tuesday evening - the first meeting between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, where final details were to be completed.

An exhibition Monday in Tulkarem was flashier than the day-to-day duty facing the police. Dozens of young troops in military fatigues marched in formation and conducted a series of calisthenic drills and martial-arts exercises at an abandoned dirt lot.

At one point, the soldiers formed a human pyramid and cried out “Jerusalem is ours!” Later, the soldiers sprinted and jumped headfirst through a smoldering hoop lined with a flaming cloth.

Elsewhere in town, camouflage troops congregated on a street corner, while blue-uniformed police patrolled the streets and directed traffic.

Tulkarem governor Izzedine al-Sharif said 2,500 Palestinian police are to be posted in the town and the main goals would be “to maintain security and law, to prevent any attacks against Israeli targets.” He said the police are ready for their mission. “We are preparing many measures,” he said, “like setting up permanent and mobile checkpoints.”

Giora Eiland, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s national security adviser, told The Associated Press that Israel is concerned that Palestinian militant groups have taken advantage of the recent lull in fighting to regroup.

He said Israel has “reservations” about the effectiveness of the Palestinians exercises but added that “the training, of course, is up to them.”

Other Israeli security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the presence of even poorly trained Palestinian forces is preferable to the virtual power vacuum currently in the area.

In another development relating to Mideast peacemaking, Jordan’s King Abdullah II told an Israeli TV station that he would work to update a 2002 Arab peace offer to take into account Israel’s concerns.

Talking to Channel Two TV in an interview broadcast Monday, Abdullah said he was surprised at Israel’s negative reaction to the original offer but would work to “re-articulate” it before the upcoming Arab summit in Algiers, Algeria.

The 2002 plan offered Israel recognition from the Arab world as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians that would include withdrawal from all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem and Golan Heights, with an agreed solution for Palestinian refugees. Israel objected to the concept of a total withdrawal and cast doubts on the sincerity of the offer.

King Abdullah took part in the Feb. 8 summit in Egypt, where Sharon and Abbas announced a cease-fire. Transfer of control of five West Bank towns was part of the truce. Israel retook the towns in 2002 in a major military operation in the West Bank, following a series of grisly Palestinian suicide bombings.

Tulkarem is on the 1949 cease-fire line that separates Israel from the West Bank at Israel’s narrowest point, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Israeli city of Netanya on the Mediterranean Sea. Netanya was the target of many suicide bombers before Israel built the section of its separation barrier that now blocks Tulkarem from three sides.

Much of the negotiations have focused on whether Israel would remove army roadblocks in the West Bank as part of a pullback. The Palestinians have insisted on the removal of roadblocks, which have severely disrupted daily life in the West Bank since fighting broke out more than four years ago. Israel insists they are necessary to stop attackers.

Al-Sharif said Israel had agreed in Sunday’s meeting to remove a main checkpoint linking to town to the nearby city of Nablus. Israel will keep in place a large roadblock south of the town, he said.