Qureia: Israel, Palestinians to start writing agreement

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have agreed to start drafting elements of a proposed peace accord, the chief Palestinian negotiator said.

Ahmed Qureia, the veteran negotiator heading the Palestinian team, made it clear that the decision did not necessarily reflect agreement on major issues. But this would be the first time since negotiations resumed more than six months ago that anything would be committed to paper.

''We agreed with the Israelis to begin writing the positions,'' Qureia told reporters late Friday.

Israeli government officials would not comment.

Qureia did not explain why the two sides had agreed at this point to begin drafting a text.

The timing coincides with a corruption scandal in Israel that threatens to unseat Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Should Israel find itself going to early elections, polls show Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes major territorial concessions to the Palestinians, becoming Israel's next premier. However, drafting during previous rounds of peace talks has not meant always that those positions were then preserved for future negotiators.

Qureia did not say what issue the two sides would start with. If they reach agreement on any issue, then they will draft a single provision, he said. If not, they will lay out on paper their divergent views, he added.

Israel and the Palestinians resumed peace talks in late November under US prodding.

Qureia confirmed that Israeli peace negotiators have offered the Palestinians land in exchange for territory where major West Bank settlements lie, but he termed their offer ''unacceptable.''

Palestinians would like to incorporate all of the West Bank into a future state, but their moderate president, Mahmoud Abbas, has acknowledged that Israel, with US backing, likely will hold on to blocs where tens of thousands of settlers live. In exchange, Abbas is prepared to relinquish some West Bank land for an equal amount of Israeli land.

Qureia would not say how much territory Israel offered, where it lay or how much West Bank land Israel

proposed to keep under a final peace accord with the Palestinians.

''The Israelis presented a land swap offer, but this offer is unacceptable to us,'' he said.

Other Palestinian officials have said Israel has presented maps giving it 10 percent of the West Bank in exchange for southern Israeli territory near the Gaza Strip.