Barak envisages Palestinian state

Mr Barak expects American help

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has given a strong hint he believes an independent Palestinian state will emerge as a result of the current peace process.

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Mr Barak said such an entity would be disarmed, and most Jewish settlers would remain under Israeli sovereignty.

He said no Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return to homes in Israel.

Mr Barak has never specifically endorsed the idea of a Palestinian state but he his remarks shed some light on the kind of sate he is prepared to accept.

He said: "No serious person believes that the entity that will be created will be a protectorate or autonomy made up of various non-contiguous patches on the map without its residents being able to leave its territory freely."

Newspapers have reported that Mr Barak would be willing to recognise a Palestinian state in as much as 80% of the West Bank.

Mr Barak has already made it clear that he wants the Palestinians to enjoy a measure of territorial continuity.

Jerusalem

On Jerusalem, Mr Barak said the city would remain under Israeli sovereignty, but without some of the exclusively Palestinian areas which now fall within the city's municipal boundaries.

Settlements construction to extend the Efrat area in the West Bank

The annexation of 50-70,000 Palestinians, he told the cabinet, was not in Israel's interest.

Since peace talks with Syria have foundered, Mr Barak says he wants to accelerate the Palestinian track. After a meeting last week with President Clinton, Mr Barak said they had a variety of ideas on how to give new momentum and energy to the Palestinian track.

Mr Barak says he expects the Americans to make bridging proposals before Israel and the Palestinians start to show flexibility.

The BBC Jerusalem correspondent says Mr Barak must be hoping that by setting out his position in such detail, he can persuade the Palestinians to do what Syria has so far refused to do - strike a deal.

Palestinians

Palestinian negotiators said no real progress had been made as low-level negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian delegations in the United States ended over the weekend.

The Palestinian cabinet was briefed by on Sunday by a senior negotiator, later releasing a statement.

"The second round of negotiations has been concluded without achieving any fundamental progress because of the Israeli attempts to jump over the international...resolutions," the statement said.