ISRAELI and Palestinian peace negotiators talked into the early hours of this morning, amid signs that the long delayed deal on Israel's military pullout from Hebron was imminent.
All civilian aspects of the agreement are understood to have been finalised, and delegations including the Israeli army chief of staff, Qen Amnon Shahak, the PLO secretary-general, Mr Mahmud Abbas, Mr Yasser Arafat's deputy, Mr Abu Mazen, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu's diplomatic adviser, Mr Dore Gold, were working toward a final accord on security arrangements.
Israel was supposed to have withdrawn most of its forces from Hebron, the last West Bank city it still controls, seven months ago, under the provisions of the Oslo peace process. But the pullout was repeatedly delayed, and Mr Netanyahu has been demanding improved security arrangements for the 450 Jewish settlers who live in the centre of Hebron.
Mr Arafat initially refused to renegotiate the deal, but two weeks of talks, mediated by the US envoy, Mr Dennis Ross, have now apparently brought the two sides to the brink of a new agreement.
Mr Netanyahu has come under considerable American and European pressure to honour Israel's commitment to leave Hebron.
There have been reports that at the emergency Washington summit called by President Clinton after late-September's gun battles between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian policemen, the Israeli prime minister pledged to begin the withdrawal before the US elections.
Mr Ross, who had earlier cancelled a return to Washington when the talks appeared to have reached stalemate once more, joined the latest session in a Jerusalem hotel late last night.
Before going in, Mr Ross repeated that he had remained in Israel because significant progress had been made, and expressed the hope that this would continue.
The talks had begun in one hotel before shifting to another, apparently to evade media attention.
Mr Ross said earlier that 17 days of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were at their "most promising" point yet.
The reports of progress were a last-minute surprise after Mr Ross announced on Monday that he would end his intense mediation in the negotiations launched on October 6th with the two sides apparently still far from an accord for implementation of the Hebron pull-out.
The Palestinian head negotiator on security issues, Mr Abdel Razaq Yehia, said the two sides were "very close to understandings on some points."
The Palestinian team met earlier yesterday with President Arafat in Ramallah while the Israeli side was due to meet Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem for consultations before the talks.