WASHINGTON - There´s a lot riding on tomorrow´s visit with President Bush for Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas: his job.

Abbas is under enormous pressure back home to get Bush behind his demand that Israel release thousands of Palestinian prisoners and stop construction of Jewish settlements.

If Abbas "is unable to achieve any progress on these points, we are sure that he will face difficulties on the Palestinian street and inside the [legislature]," Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said yesterday.

The Palestinian legislature will "discuss again giving him its confidence, or not," when Abbas returns, Amr said.

The threats against Abbas´ tenure - and against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - also came from Palestinian terror groups yesterday.

A top Hamas honcho warned that Sharon would "pay the price" if he refuses to release thousands of prisoners swept up during the uprising - including members of his terror group.

Hamas threat

Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who survived an Israeli attempt to assassinate him last month, also brazenly threatened a return to the slaughter of civilians.

"We prefer to give the ceasefire a chance," he told the Haaretz newspaper, "but if our movement´s prisoners won´t be released, the ceasefire will be annulled."

A temporary truce by Hamas and other terror groups June 29 has greatly diminished the violence that has surged during the uprising of the past 33 months. Sharon wants Hamas and other groups disarmed, but Abbas and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat have refused to move against them.

Abbas, who was to arrive in the nation´s capital last night, will be treated as if he were a major head of state.

He will see Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and senior members of Congress today.

After lunch with Bush at the White House tomorrow, he has separate meetings set with Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Powell.

The release of prisoners has emerged as a key Palestinian demand. Israel holds about 7,700 Palestinians in jail but has agreed to release several hundred.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yonatan Peled said yesterday the first prisoners would be freed within days. He did not say whether any of those released would be from the militant groups Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

But he did say Israel would consider releasing prisoners who had not been implicated in violence, "regardless of their political or terrorist organization affiliation."

An Israeli government statement said Sharon would allow continued prisoner releases in small batches and "weighed against decisive Palestinian action in the security field."

The State Department issued a balanced appeal to both sides to do more to put in place a U.S.-backed blueprint for peace. (© 2003 Daily News, L.P. 07/24/03)