Palestinians, Israelis continue tricky peace talks

By The Associated Press

TABA, Egypt - Getting down to business in their "peace marathon," Israeli and Palestinian negotiators today split up into working groups, including one tackling the most contentious issue, the fate of Palestinian refugees.

One Palestinian official said Israel proposed to take in 150,000 Palestinian refugees over 20 years. However, the report could not be confirmed independently.

After morning talks at a hotel in the Red Sea resort, both sides said the gaps remained wide, but that the talks were serious. A photograph from one session showed negotiators sitting in a circle in comfortable chairs, all tie-less and laughing. Pens, notebooks and a few apples were lying on a table in the middle.

The leader of the Israeli team, Shlomo Ben-Ami, said that in the unlikely event an accord is reached before Israel's Feb. 6 election, it would be signed only after the vote.

Ben-Ami was responding to criticism by Prime Minister Ehud Barak's hard-line rival, opposition leader Ariel Sharon, who said the government did not have the moral authority to make concessions to the Palestinians so close to the elections. Barak is trailing Sharon in the polls by more than 20 percentage points.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, an Israeli army tracker was wounded when a roadside bomb went off near the Netzarim junction. Israel responded by briefly closing the main north-south road, cutting the strip in half.

Despite the blast, Israel eased its blockade of the Palestinian territories - in effect during four months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian fighting - and permitted 16,000 Palestinian workers to return to jobs in Israel.

Peace talks in the Red Sea resort of Taba began Sunday evening, after Israel accepted an offer from Yasser Arafat to hold marathon negotiations.

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