JERUSALEM, Israel – Secretary of State Powell made a new push for Middle East peace yesterday, promising Palestinian Arabs full American support for elections to replace Yasser Arafat and receiving Israeli assurances of a smooth path to the ballot box, including eased travel restrictions and letting Palestinian Arabs in east Jerusalem vote by absentee ballot.

In one of his last overseas trips as the top American diplomat, Mr. Powell sat down with both Israeli and Palestinian Arab leaders, seeking to capitalize on new realities created by Arafat’s death.

“I have come to bring a message of peace and commitment from President Bush that he wants to move forward on the path of peace, to take advantage of the new opportunities that are before us,” Mr. Powell said in a meeting with Prime Minister Sharon.

Much of the discussions with the leaders focused on the January 9 elections for Palestinian Authority president. Mr. Powell also visited a voter registration center in the West Bank town of Jericho, listening to Palestinian Arabs’ pleas for a state of their own.

Though they mourn Arafat, many Palestinian Arabs feel a sense of excitement and possibility at the end of his one-man rule, anticipating the election that could help give them the first real democracy in the Arab world.

“Now the father is dead and everyone in the family has the right to express his own views,” said Moenis Abu Imran, a shopkeeper in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Nevertheless, extremists on both sides pose a threat, and it’s far from clear if Palestinian Arab and Israeli leaders will have enough confidence and credibility to make the painful concessions required for any peace deal.

Israeli leaders assured Mr. Powell they will do their utmost to allow the vote to take place, including easing travel restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mr. Powell said the Israelis ex pressed a willingness to allow Palestinian Arab residents of east Jerusalem to vote, a contentious issue because Israel fears doing so could undermine its claims to the entire city. Mr. Powell said both sides agreed that the model used in the last Palestinian elections in 1996 – allowing east Jerusalem residents to cast absentee ballots – could be followed again.

In a sign of an improving atmosphere after four years of deadly violence, Israeli officials also said they are willing to renew talks with the Palestinian Arabs on some issues, including security, and to coordinate the aftermath of Israel’s planned withdrawal from Gaza and part of the West Bank in 2005.

Israel and America had refused to talk to Arafat in his final years, calling him an unacceptable negotiating partner because of what they said was his support of terror. Arafat died November 11 in France at age 75.

Yesterday, Mr. Powell met with interim PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Qurei, and interim President Fattouh, among others.

The Fatah Central Committee chose Mr. Abbas as the party’s presidential candidate late yesterday. Mr. Abbas, 69, Arafat’s longtime deputy as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, already has been named head of the PLO. If elected president of the Palestinian Authority, he would inherit two of Arafat’s main titles.

Mr. Powell said both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs must return to the American-backed “road map” peace plan, which calls for a Palestinian state after requiring Palestinian Arabs to dismantle terror groups and Israel to freeze settlement building in the West Bank and Gaza. The plan had been all but dead because of each side’s failure to implement the initial requirements.

When people in Jericho pressed Mr. Powell for a timetable for creation of a Palestinian state, he said: “It won’t be determined by picking a date, but by progress and action on the ground.”