OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, July 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) -  A senior aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “secret” peace plan which the Israeli leader said he has worked out with the U.S. government to end the Middle East conflict.

Nabil Abu Rudeina said Sharon’s peace plan was “imaginary”, and said the former general was likely just floating a “trial balloon.”

“The general feeling that there exists no plan has helped keep this plan secret,” Israeli daily newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, quoted the hard-line Israeli leader as telling an economic conference Thursday, July 4, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

“I was therefore able quietly to work for months to reach an understanding with the Americans,” Sharon said, without providing any details about the plan or which U.S. officials he had spoken with.

“These imaginary peace plans and trial balloons will lead to nothing,” Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP Friday, July.

“We’re interested in putting back on track the peace process, not to create the illusion of a peace process but to reach a real agreement which will bring peace,” Sharon said.

“I decided to take the initiative and change the negative atmosphere in the region and to give a chance for peace,” he said.

Sharon has been adopting aggression policies towards the Palestinian population and lands with his continuous incursions into the Palestinian territories and murder of the Palestinians.

He added that “Israel warmly welcomes the principles raised in President Bush’s speech” on the Middle East, referring to a key Middle East policy address given by George W. Bush late last month.

Israeli public radio, meanwhile, reported that a Sharon envoy went on a “secret mission” this week to Washington to discuss how to carry out the ideas in Bush's speech.