BRUSSELS, May 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - E.U. envoys failed Wednesday to work out the legal terms for taking in 13 Palestinian resistance activists expelled from their homeland after taking refuge in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, European sources said.

The 13 Palestinians - exiled without other members of their families - were flown to Cyprus on a British air force plane Friday, May 10, as part of a deal brokered by the E.U. and the United States to end the 39-day Israeli army siege of Christianity’s holiest sites.

E.U. ambassadors ended a one-day meeting Wednesday, May 15, with no agreement, but said they would hold more talks Thursday, May 16, the sources said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"A lot of details have been settled, but there is still work to do," said an official close to the Spanish E.U. presidency.

The failure to reach a quick agreement on Wednesday came as a security official in Cyprus warned that the Palestinians were at risk in the Mediterranean island.

"The dangers posed to their safety increases the longer they stay here because of the island's proximity to the Middle East," said the security source.

The Palestinian freedom fighters are being held at the Flamingo Beach in the southern coastal resort town of Larnaca.

The Greek Cypriot daily newspaper Phileleftheros reported that security arrangements at the hotel were reviewed due to fears that Israel would change its mind and demand the 13 back.

The key sticking point was the status to be granted to the Palestinians which will determine how much freedom of movement they will enjoy.

Six E.U. countries expressed a willingness to take in the Palestinians: Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

But the governments who agree to take them in "would like to find wording that would mean that all of the E.U. would be committed in one way or another," an E.U. diplomat told AFP.

Some governments want the 13 to be given the same status in all host-countries, a request that appeared difficult to grant given the differences in legislation.

Cyprus says Brussels assured it that within a week or so several E.U. countries would take in the activists.

After visiting the 13 on Wednesday, Spanish Ambassador Ignacio Garcia Valdecasas expressed his country's willingness to take in "some of them," but did not elaborate.

On Monday, May 13, E.U. foreign ministers endorsed a deal whereby the 13 resistance activists would be resettled in several E.U. member states.