JERUSALEM - Israeli and Palestinian leaders managed to put some Scotch tape on the tattered U.S.-backed road map to peace yesterday - despite simultaneous suicide bombings this week.

Security chiefs from both sides met and Israel agreed by day´s end to withdraw from four more West Bank towns in the next two weeks.

The four include Ramallah, a key center of Palestinian power and commerce.

The Palestinians have sought a pullback from Ramallah for some time, in part to allow Yasser Arafat some freedom of movement. Israeli travel restrictions have confined the Palestinian leader to his Ramallah headquarters for nearly two years.

Israel TV said Israel would permit Arafat to make a trip to Gaza City to pay his respects at the grave of a sister, Yousra al Kidwah, who died this week at age 77. The report could not be confirmed but would be a significant gesture if true.

It was not clear just how much U.S. pressure helped end the dispute over who should make the next move under the peace plan: Israel, which is supposed to pull back from more areas of the West Bank; or the Palestinians, who Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to dismantle militant groups.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas still refuses to use force to confront terrorist groups but his government did recently seize $3 million in foreign funding meant for Islamic Jihad, said Abdel Fattah Hamayel, a cabinet minister.

The money came from "outside, non-Palestinian" sources, Hamayel said, without elaborating. Islamic Jihad officials denied the money was intended for the group but the Israeli daily Haaretz cited sources who said the money came from Iran and was intercepted recently.

The Israelis also allege that money is still flowing to Hamas from Saudi Arabia.

Despite the latest developments, the situation remains tense: Islamic Jihad is threatening revenge for an Israeli raid Thursday that killed the group´s leader in the West Bank city of Hebron, Mohammed Sidr. (© 2003 Daily News, L.P. 08/16/03)