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Israel clears West Bank land transfer

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's cabinet gave the green light on Sunday to a handover of 6.1 percent of the West Bank to full Palestinian control, paving the way for the renewal of U.S.-brokered peace talks on Tuesday.

"The cabinet today endorsed the further withdrawal from 6.1 percent of territory in Judea and Samaria," said a statement from Barak's office, using biblical names for the West Bank.

It said 16 ministers voted in favour and six were against the handover, to take place on Tuesday. One minister abstained.

The handover will bring land under full or partial Palestinian control to 39.8 percent of the West Bank, said Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh. Palestinian officials had said last week the total would be 42.9 after the transfer.

The step was originally scheduled for January 20 under interim peace deals but was delayed in wrangling over the areas to be transferred.

One percent of the territory to be transferred will be land which has been under full Israeli control. The remaining 5.1 percent will be land which has been under Israeli security control with the Palestinians overseeing civil matters.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are to meet at Bolling Air Force base in Washington on Tuesday to renew talks aimed at sealing a permanent peace treaty between the sides by September.

A dispute over the handover map had held up talks on all facets of a treaty, meant to address such cardinal issues as the fate of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlements.

SETTLERS DEMONSTRATE

Palestinians had demanded that the 6.1 percent handover include villages near Arab East Jerusalem, claimed by both sides as their capital.

Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat smoothed over the issue earlier this month in a U.S.-mediated summit that gave rise to the resumption of talks. But Barak, bowing to right-wing pressure last week, decided against including in the 6.1 percent a village adjacent to Jerusalem.

The areas in the new transfer will include villages near the towns of Hebron, Ramallah, Beitounia, Jericho, Salfit and Jenin.

In a demonstration against the handover ahead of the cabinet vote on Sunday, Jewish settlers lined a highway that links one of the villages to Jewish suburbs of Jerusalem.

"These are citizens of Israel. To expose men, women and children to the guns of the Palestinian Authority is something that no Israeli government has ever done," said settler spokeswoman Yehudit Tayyar.

Israel is to release Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in a goodwill gesture.

"There will be between three and five released, residents of East Jerusalem, with blood on their hands - they injured Israelis, soldiers and civilians," said Prisons Authority spokeswoman Orit Messer-Harel.

Israel captured the West Bank along with the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians want the areas for a future Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday that the Washington talks, aimed at reaching a framework agreement by May ahead of a full peace treaty by September 13, could last two weeks.-Reuters