The Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has delayed indefinitely a cabinet decision on the interim peace agreement reached with the Palestinians near Washington last week.

A government spokesman said the Palestinians had not kept their promise to submit a detailed security plan to Israel this week.

The BBC Jerusalem Correspondent says the decision augurs badly for the peace process.

She says that -- coming so soon -- it will only re-inforce deep-seated Palestinian scepticism over Israel's readiness to implement the deal.

The agreement promises a phased Israeli withdrawal from thirteen percent of the West Bank in exchange for Palestinian measures against extremists.

Earlier, hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Nablus.

The trouble followed the killing of an elderly Palestinian man near Nablus in an apparent act of revenge for the murder of a Jewish settler near Hebron.