Israel has rejected a Palestinian proposal that an international peacekeeping force should patrol parts of the West Bank remaining under Israeli control.

David Bar-Ilan, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, said Israel would not accept the deployment of foreign troops in the West Bank.

The West Bank

"Arafat has been touting this idea for 10 years, and it is as unacceptable now as it was a decade ago," said Mr Bar-Ilan.

The Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would present the proposal to US President Bill Clinton next month.

The Israeli Foreign Minister, David Levy, has suggested that the next land handover to the Palestinians should involve territory in the West Bank.

Since the 1995 interim peace deal, Palestinians have been hoping that 30% more of the West Bank would be ceded to them.

Mr Netanyahu and his cabinet have been touring the West Bank area in helicopters as part of a bid to map out Israel's bottom-line security demands. A cabinet decision is expected next month.
 

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