Palestinian leadership says "no progress" despite US efforts

The Palestinian leadership, meeting in Ramallah last night to review the results of the visit to the region by US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, blamed "Israeli intransigence" for the lack of progress in the negotiations, Palestinian radio reported on Saturday morning.

"The leadership emphasized that no progress was made despite Ross's efforts and the meetings held with the Israeli side, due to Israel's intransigence.

It said the negotiations process is facing a dangerous stalemate," the radio stated.

President Yasir Arafat chaired the meeting, which was attended by the ministers, members of the PLO Executive Committee and the Negotiations Committee and Legislative Council Speaker Ahmad Quray.

"The leadership warned of a conflagration in the region as a result of the Israeli colonialist expansionist policy," the radio reported.

"It reiterated its rejection of all Israeli withdrawal maps, and said these maps are a deviation from the official signed agreement and an attempt to blackmail the US position.

It stressed its unequivocal rejection of the Israeli government's announcement regarding implementing redeployment after a period of several months." "The Palestinian leadership hailed the US position that calls for stopping Israel's unilateral actions, implementing all stages of redeployment as agreed upon, and halting settlement construction," the radio quoted a statement issued at the meeting as saying.

"The leadership urged international quarters to pressure Israel into respecting and implementing the requisites of the transitional stage." "The leadership discussed in detail all Israeli colonialist activities, especially those in Jerusalem.

It stressed the importance of confronting this policy, remaining steadfast and protecting the land.

The leadership approved the projects necessary to confront the colonialist settlement offensive," the radio reported.

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.