Jerusalem ? Yasser Arafat’s top deputy said the Palestinians made a mistake in taking up arms against Israel and that the policy destroyed the economy and prompted a return of Israeli troops to West Bank towns.

Mahmoud Abbas, a possible successor to the politically weakened and 73-year-old Arafat, called on officials of Arafat’s Fatah movement at a closed-door meeting last month to rein in gunmen and militia groups. The comments, which implicitly criticize Arafat for inaction, are contained in a 20-page transcript obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday and confirmed by his office after excerpts were published in two Arabic papers.

In the meeting with Fatah officials, Abbas said it was time for soul-searching.

“We should … ask ourselves where we are headed, not by beating ourselves up, but by reviewing the mistakes we have made” he said, according to the transcript.

There has been little public debate in Palestinian society regarding the armed conflict with Israel, even though the fighting has stopped negotiations toward Palestinian statehood and left the economy in a shambles. Also, Israeli troops have reoccupied most West Bank towns, chasing those who are wanted for suicide attacks in Israel.

In his meeting with Fatah officials last month, Abbas said what should have been a nonviolent Palestinian protest had been turned into an armed conflict.

“What happened in these two years, as we see it now, is a complete destruction of everything we built,” he said. “The reason for this is that many people diverted the uprising from its natural path and embarked on a path we can’t handle.”

Several months after the violence erupted, moderate Prime Minister Ehud Barak was trounced at the polls by Ariel Sharon, who removed Barak’s peace offers from the table and oversaw a gradual escalation of Israel’s military measures aimed at crushing the uprising.

On Wednesday, Sharon insisted he would accept a truncated Palestinian state, addressing a main campaign issue on the eve of a primary election in which polls give him a huge lead over his opponent.

With the hawkish Likud’s primary set for today, newspaper polls gave Sharon a lead of at least 20 percentage points over foreign minister and ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes creation of a Palestinian state under any circumstances.

While Sharon foresees a small, weak Palestinian state under virtual Israeli control, the Likud’s main opponent in Jan. 28 elections, Labor’s Amram Mitzna, favors an Israeli pullout from all of Gaza and most of the West Bank. Polls show the Likud far ahead of Labor.