Palestinian full truce talks fail

The failure is a blow for the Palestinian PM

Palestinian factions meeting in Egypt have failed to agree a full ceasefire on attacking Israeli targets.

The groups were even unable to overcome differences over whether to stop suicide attacks against civilians inside Israel, officials said.

This was a personal blow for the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, who had gone to Cairo to join the talks, says the BBC's Paul Wood.

Israel had rejected any truce deal that excluded Israeli military targets.

Israeli doubt

The groups had been discussing a temporary, limited ceasefire, restricted to Israeli civilians, but not to cover soldiers or settlers.

"The talks have ended. Differences remained," Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) delegate Maher al-Taher was quoted as telling the AFP news agency.

"Nor was there an agreement on the question of sparing civilians," he said.

The militant groups say they will now issue only a joint press release - which is expected to make no mention of refraining from attacks on Israeli civilians and no mention of any kind of ceasefire.

The fact that the Palestinian militant groups have been unable to agree even such a limited ceasefire proposal is another sign of the deep crisis facing the Middle East peace process, our correspondent says.

On Sunday Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he doubted "anything substantial will change"

Speaking before a weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, he added there had been no sign "on the ground" of a Palestinian commitment to end attacks.

"In fact we see the opposite and we just stopped a few suicide attacks from being carried out in the last few days," he said.

He said there was no room for negotiation until the attacks stopped.

"They have to stop terrorist actions unilaterally and without any reservations... If they will stop it, there will be a basis for further discussion about implementing the roadmap."