Jerusalem ? Mahmoud Abbas won the endorsement of the Fatah party and took another step Monday toward becoming the Palestinian prime minister and forcing Yasser Arafat to share some of his power.

The endorsement boosts the chances of Abbas and his proposed Cabinet winning approval in parliament today, since Fatah controls a solid majority in the legislature. Approval would set the stage for new Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.

President Bush has said he will unveil the so-called “road map” to Palestinian statehood once Abbas has been installed. Bush refuses to deal with Arafat, whom he considers tainted by terrorism, and has been holding out for an alternate Palestinian leadership.

However, Arafat has been trying to retain as much as he can of that once near-absolute power. In an interview with the Israeli daily Maariv published Monday, he suggested he has no plans to step aside, noting he is the elected president of the Palestinian people and “the whole world knows this.”

Also Monday, the designated Palestinian foreign minister, Nabil Shaath, demanded Israel grant Arafat freedom of movement. Israeli restrictions have in effect confined him to his Ramallah office building for more than a year.

“It would really be totally inappropriate for this government to start its actions and its movements while its elected president and the leader of the Palestinian people, Yasser Arafat, is still in … detention,” Shaath said.

Abbas formed his Cabinet after several weeks of wrangling with Arafat, who last week withdrew some of his challenges, including to the appointment of former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan as a junior minister for security — an appointment Israel and the United States saw as important.

Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas, center, shakes hand with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's adviser Nabil Abu Rdeneh, left, as they are accompanied by Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qureia, right, at Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Arafat's Fatah party on Monday endorsed the slate of Cabinet members proposed by Abbas.

However, there has been widespread criticism regarding some of Abbas’ choices, with some legislators saying he missed an opportunity for a sweeping overhaul. Critics also said several appointees, including Dahlan, are tainted by corruption, despite Abbas’ promise to carry out far-reaching government reform.

Legislator Hanan Ashrawi, an independent, said Abbas appears to have chosen Cabinet ministers based largely on personal loyalties. She said she told Abbas in a recent meeting that “if you play the game by the old rules, the president (Arafat) will beat you because he is a master of this game.”

Abbas needs the support of 43 legislators in the 85-member parliament in today’s vote. Fatah controls 62 seats.

The Fatah Central Committee, the movement’s ruling body, met Monday and decided to instruct its legislators to vote in favor of Abbas’ Cabinet.

With parliament approval for the Cabinet, the Palestinians would have cleared the final hurdle toward unveiling the road map, expected in coming days. The three-stage plan envisions full Palestinian statehood within three years, with a provisional state in temporary borders as early as this year.