The current peace process evolved out of the historic agreement between Israel and the PLO in 1993.

It marked the chance for a new beginning after decades of conflict between Israel and the Arabs.

In the agreement, Israel undertook to recognise the PLO and begin discussions on introducing Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over a five-year transitional period.

No clear goal

The current problems stem from the fact that the 1993 agreement never spelt out clearly what the long-term goal of the peace process would be.

Would it lead to a fully-fledged Palestinian entity in the West Bank and Gaza with all the trappings of statehood as the Palestinians want?

Or would it lead to a much more limited arrangement falling short of full statehood, which many Israelis would prefer?

Israeli withdrawals

In subsequent detailed accords in 1994 and 1995 - known as the Oslo accords - Israel agreed to pull its troops out of most of the Gaza Strip, as well as carry out phased withdrawals in the West Bank.

At issue now is the extent of the withdrawals in the West Bank, a small rump of territory adjoining Jordan which Israel captured in 1967.

Israel has already handed over to the Palestinians the major urban centres in the West Bank, and most of the town of Hebron except the area where Israeli troops remain to guard some 400 Jewish settlers.

Further Israeli withdrawals are meant to take place in the remaining areas of the West Bank, which constitutes at least 90% of the territory.

About a third of this land is under Palestinian civil administration, but controlled militarily by Israel.

How much land?

The problem is that Israel and the Palestinians cannot agree on how much of this remaining land should be handed over to full Palestinian control.

Under the peace accords, the only guideline is that by the end of the five-year transitional period, Israel should have redeployed its forces to guard Israeli military installations, border zones and the more than 100,000 Jewish settlers who now live in the West Bank.

But just what do these areas comprise?

This was never spelt out in the various peace agreements - a deliberate ambiguity to allow both sides to believe that the peace process met their contradictory objectives.

Mr Arafat believes that at least 90% of the West Bank should be in his hands by the end of the process in order to buttress Palestinian aspirations to statehood.

Mr Netanyahu and his right-wing allies are reluctant to yield anything like that much, either because they believe in the right of Jews to settle in the West Bank, or because they fear that handing over too much land is a security risk.

To complicate matters, the final status of the West Bank has been deliberately left out of the current phase of the peace process and deferred until the two sides begin what are known as "final status talks."
 

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