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Palestinians, Israelis Clinch Progress Statement Short Of Peace Deal
TABA, Egypt, Jan 27 (News Agencies) - Palestinian and Israeli negotiators agreed to end marathon talks here Saturday with a statement of "progress" that falls short of a peace deal, a week before a leadership election in Israel.
The statement will be read at 8:30 pm (1830 GMT) in the Egyptian resort of Taba by Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami and top Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei, Israeli negotiator Amnon Lipkin-Shahak told Israeli television monitored in Jerusalem.
"No accord will be signed, not even a partial one, which commits the two sides, but a statement will [be issued] that assesses the situation," Lipkin-Shahak said.
The statement will note "progress on several files, principally territorial issues, Jerusalem, refugees and security," said the former chief of staff who added, however, that there was no complete accord on any of the issues.
The announcement came after the two sides held a day of talks in the neighboring Israeli resort of Eilat, just across the border from Taba, where the negotiations have been held for the past week.
Israeli radio reported earlier that negotiators were trying to draw up a joint statement which could be signed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
The Israelis have said they hoped to reach "some sort" of agreement, which is seen as Barak's only chance to keep hardliner Ariel Sharon from taking his job in the February 6th election.
The Palestinians fear a victory by Sharon.
Earlier, Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo had promised a "surprise" for Saturday evening, but did not elaborate.
However, his colleague on the Palestinian negotiating team, Saeb Erakat, played down the scope of a statement being drafted, which he had said would be issued on Sunday. "It is going to be a very general statement," he said.
Erakat said that the statement would sum up the "seriousness of the meetings, [and] the determination of both sides to continue the joint endeavor in trying to reach an agreement," which will continue after the elections.
A Palestinian source had said on condition he not be named that the statement might be able to include the closure of the territorial file, but this did not seem to have been achieved, according to Lipkin-Shahak.
The Palestinians say they have made progress toward having Israeli agree toward dismantling most of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, removing settler roads, and handing back around 94% of the West Bank.
The two sides have further to go on resolving their disputes over east Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital, and on the right of Palestinians to return to homes now in Israel.
Erakat also denied a journalist's suggestion that the Palestinians wanted a result from their marathon talks that would help Barak get re-elected in his race against hardliner Ariel Sharon.
"We came here in the hope to find ways to have an agreement. Unfortunately, we could not," Erakat said.
But he added the two sides have "come a long way in the last 15 months."
Erakat meanwhile stuck to his public opposition to anything short of a comprehensive settlement.
The Palestinians held "informal talks" in Eilat, along the Red Sea coast from Taba, to avoid making the Israeli delegation travel on the Jewish sabbath.
Israeli negotiator Yossi Sarid said here that the marathon peace talks have been the "most successful to be conducted with the Palestinians," denying any suggestion they could be considered a failure.
The negotiations were reaching a climax as Arafat warned Saturday that peace in the Middle East would not be possible if Sharon wins the February 6th election for Israeli prime minister.
Violence in the Palestinian territories has diminished recently but several incidents were reported Saturday, while in a potentially worrying development on Israel's northern border, two members of a hardline Palestinian group were killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli fire.
A Palestinian man suspected of being a "collaborator" with Israel was shot dead early Saturday by three masked gunmen in the northern West Bank town of Nablus, hospital sources and
neighbors said.
Also in Nablus Friday, an Israeli woman had to be rescued by Palestinian police when she was threatened with lynching by an angry crowd, an Israeli military source said Saturday.
And a Palestinian paramedic was in hospital after being detained, stripped and beaten with rifle butts by Israeli soldiers for more than two hours in the West Bank last week, a Palestinian medical official said.
On the Lebanese front, the bodies of two armed Palestinians were found after Israeli fire targeted southern Lebanon near the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms area late Friday.
One of the bodies bore documents indicating membership of the hardline Syrian-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
It was the first time armed Palestinians were killed in the area since Israel ended its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in May.
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