One said it had been forged without consultation with the wider Arab world.

'A victory for Israel'

"According to this agreement, Israel got huge gains without offering anything worthwhile in return," the newspaper Tishrin said, under the headline "An Unfair Agreement".

"It denies the simplest rights of the Palestinian people and entrenches the occupation of their land." The agreement was a "great achievement" for Israel, it continued.

The newspaper said that Palestine was an "Arab issue" and no-one had the right to "unilaterally liquidate it in this manner away from the Palestinian people, who offered thousands of martyrs".

Worse than Oslo

Another Syrian Government newspaper, Al-Thawrah, described the deal "as a retreat from the Oslo agreement".

"The limited Palestinian Authority, as well as its police force and security institutions were turned into instruments in the hands of the Israelis for pursuing, arresting and punishing the Palestinian people," the paper said.

The agreement is "a liquidation deal".

Deal endangers pan-Arab security

The Damascus-based Alliance of Palestinian Forces (APF), made of up the Palestinian groups which rejected the original Oslo accords between the Palestinians and Israel issued a statement broadcast by Palestinian Al-Quds radio, which pledged to "continue the struggle".

"The APF, while it fully rejects the forgery and falsehoods that were concluded in the name of the Palestinian people, would like to point out that these agreements are a new page in the record of treason and shame and explicitly show the extent of the humiliating subservience of Arafat and his group to the Zionised US administration and to the US-Zionist plan to liquidate definitively the Palestinian cause and control our homeland and nation."

APF wants escalation

"Masses of our militant Palestinian people, masses of our Arab and Islamic nation: This treasonous clique which claims it represents the Palestinian people has been exposed.

"The Palestinian people have nothing to do with this clique. Pan-Arab, national and Islamic responsibility call for the confrontation of this serious conspiracy as it threatens the entire Palestinian cause and pan-Arab security.

"The APF expects the militant Palestinian masses in the occupied homeland to escalate their struggle and jihad and expects the Palestinian people in the diaspora to close ranks and rally round the active forces of our nation to deal with all the threats and conspiracies that are being concocted."