Sharon gets peace plan backing

There is fierce opposition to the roadmap in Israel

The diplomatic push to sustain the new Middle East peace plan, following its narrow acceptance by the Isaeli cabinet on Sunday, has begun in earnest.

The so-called roadmap to peace was approved despite opposition from several far-right ministers and members of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's own Likud party.

Mr Sharon warned his cabinet that failure to approve the plan - which the Palestinians have already accepted - would lead to a crisis with Washington.

As the cabinet was voting, the French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin arrived in Israel for two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders aimed at urging the two sides to move toward peace.

He met Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and is due to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas - more commonly known as Abu Mazen - later on Monday.

A week ago Israel declared that its officials would not meet diplomats who make appointments to see Mr Arafat, but government officials said Mr De Villepin's schedule had been arranged beforehand.

ROADMAP MAIN POINTS

Phase 1 (to May 2003): End to Palestinian violence; Palestinian political reform; Israeli withdrawal and freeze on settlement expansion; Palestinian elections

Phase 2: (June-Dec 2003) Creation of an independent Palestinian state; international conference and international monitoring of compliance with roadmap

Phase 3 (2004-2005): Second international conference; permanent status agreement and end of conflict; agreement on final borders, Jerusalem, refugees and settlements; Arab states to agree to peace deals with Israel

Roadmap full text

Can Mid-East roadmap work?

Mr De Villepin noted that both Israel and the Palestinians had accepted the plan.

"I think we have all the necessary chances to go forward and it is important at this very moment for the region that it brings back some hope," he said.

"The alternative to the road map is not the status quo but the abyss."

Israeli reservations

The roadmap envisages the step-by-step creation of a Palestinian state.

However, the cabinet voted overwhelmingly against any return by Palestinian refugees to areas of Israel vacated during the 1948-49 Middle East war - a move denounced by the Palestinians.

The BBC's Middle East correspondent James Reynolds says the cabinet has made clear that it does not see the roadmap as a set of obligations, and that it expects its many reservations to be addressed fully and seriously.

Our correspondent says there will be an early, important test in the coming days when the Israeli and the Palestinian prime ministers are expected to hold their second face to face meeting.

It is at this point, he says, that we may able to judge exactly how far and how fast each side is willing to go with the road map.

Nonetheless, Israel's acceptance of the plan does mark the first time an Israeli government has formally endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state.

It also paves the way for a mooted three-way summit next month between President Bush, Mr Sharon and Abu Mazen.

'No conditions'

The United States welcomed Israel's approval of the plan as "an important step forward".

During the cabinet session, Mr Sharon said 14 reservations about the plan which Israel has presented to Washington were not negotiable.

The objections have not been made public, but on Friday Mr Sharon announced he would accept the roadmap after the US said it would "address" Israel's concerns during the "implementation" of the plan.

Before voting on the roadmap, the Israeli cabinet passed a motion rejecting the Palestinian demand of the right of refugees to return to their former homes in Israel - a move which Israel says would demographically destroy the Jewish state.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, an aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said: "The Israeli approval with reservations is not enough. We want them to approve the roadmap completely, with no conditions, as the Palestinian side did."