Exile deal on Bethlehem siege in sight

BETHLEHEM - Palestinian and Israeli negotiators were close last night to ending a month-old standoff between troops and gunmen at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

Sources close to the negotiations said an agreement was imminent that would send Palestinian gunmen to the Gaza Strip and Italy after five weeks surrounded by troops at the church built on the spot Christians revere as Jesus' birthplace.

The gunmen were among 200 people who took cover in the church on April 2 when the Israeli troops entered Bethlehem in a sweep for militants.

The sources said the two sides had agreed 39 Palestinians wanted by Israel should be sent out of the West Bank but differed over how many of them should go abroad, and how many should go to Gaza.

"A plan has been put forward. What we don't have is a final agreement on that plan. The Israelis want 15 people to be sent abroad. The Palestinians want fewer to go abroad," an independent source said. The plan proposed that the wanted men would go to Italy through Jordan as "guests of the Italian Government", said Mohammed al-Madani, the Governor of Bethlehem, who was inside the church.

He said the Palestinians wanted only about four to seven of the men exiled abroad.

The deal would end the last serious standoff between the Army and the Palestinians from Israel's West Bank military offensive, which it launched on March 29 after Palestinian suicide attacks killed dozens of Israelis.

It would also pave the way for troops to leave Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem, as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepared to meet United States President George W. Bush. Bush has demanded a full withdrawal from Palestinian-ruled areas.

Scores of militants, Palestinian security men and civilians remain in the church.

"There are 123 people inside, 10 of them are on Israel's most-wanted list and there are other armed terrorists [there]," an Israeli military source said.

One source familiar with the talks said Yasser Arafat was studying a list of suspected Palestinian militants holed up in the church and wanted by Israel. The Palestinians had previously rejected exile for the men wanted by Israel.

Sharon is hoping to persuade the US to freeze Arafat out of Middle East peacemaking and push for Palestinian Authority reforms.

Sharon has arrived in Washington with a 100-page report that Israel says shows Arafat used millions of dollars in US and European Union donations to fund terrorism, an allegation the Palestinian Authority denies.

In London, organisers of a pro-Israel rally hope 20,000 people will turn up.

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

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