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

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

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

Palestinian negotiator Saib Urayqat said on Friday that Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat would present the proposal to US President Bill Clinton next month.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
 

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