Withholding the crumbs

Netanyahu's aides said the prime minister was waiting for details about how and when Yasser Arafat's security forces planned to arrest and imprison 30 Palestinians accused of involvement in killing Israelis.

The Palestinians rejected the Israeli demand that they submit "clarifications" of their plan to combat Palestinian extremism.

"We will not submit any clarifications to any of the points in the security plan," Mohamed Dahlan, head of Palestinian internal security in the Gaza Strip, told AFP.

State Department Spokesman James Rubin said on Tuesday that "some clarifications must be made" to the Palestinian security plan, including a timetable for the arrest of the 30 Palestinians.

"In the accord, as in our plan, there is nothing about the arrest of 30 people," Dahlan, one of the principal negotiators at Wye River, said. "We have presented our plan to the Americans as required. Israel has nothing to do with it. We shared our plan with the Americans and received a positive response."

A US State Department spokesman said on Tuesday that the Palestinian security plan had been received and that the Palestinians "have met their obligations. Everything is fine from that standpoint," the spokesman said.

But Netanyahu told Israeli radio: "I will convene the cabinet when what was agreed on in Wye will be complete. There are no new demands from the Palestinians. The requirement to receive the commitments in writing is not new."

Citing alleged lack of compliance by the Palestinian side, Netanyahu has repeatedly delayed holding a cabinet meeting to approve the agreement signed on 23 October after nine days of intensive negotiations in Wye River, Maryland.

Asked when he will convene the cabinet to ratify the agreement, Netanyahu said the timing depends on the Palestinians. "When they fulfil their commitments, we will give them what we agreed to," he said.

Yesterday, for the second time in two days, Netanyahu postponed a cabinet meeting that was to ratify the agreement. Netanyahu's adviser, David Bar-Illan, said the cabinet would not be convened until Israel receives guarantees from the US that the 30 Palestinians will be arrested.

The new delay makes it increasingly unlikely that Israel and the Palestinians will stick to their original 12-week timetable, which was to go into effect on Monday. As part of the plan, Israel was to withdraw from 13 per cent of the West Bank, with the first pullback instalment due on 16 November.

When asked by Israeli radio if he was creating a crisis over a minor issue, Netanyahu, who has said implementation would not begin until the agreement is approved by the cabinet and by parliament, responded: "I just want to establish the principle. We are not reopening the agreement. We are insisting that the agreement be honoured to the letter."

Netanyahu added that he would not put up with any Palestinian violations of the accord. "I'm not saying that promises cannot be broken. But if they are broken, we will stop the process."

The Palestinians have said they have met all commitments, including handing a detailed security work plan to the Americans. US officials, agreeing that the Palestinians have met their obligations, see no obvious way of resolving the crisis.

The Israeli daily Haaretz said US officials were "astounded" by what they considered an Israeli attempt to change the agreement.

The newspaper said Israel and the Palestinians had agreed verbally that the 30 Palestinians would be arrested by the Palestinian Authority and that Israel was making a new demand by seeking a written guarantee.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Ereikat accused Netanyahu of seizing a pretext in order to dismantle the accord before it has even begun. "He [Netanyahu] is inventing new agreements. He does not want to honour anything," an angry Ereikat told the Associated Press.

The new recriminations made it clear that any good will created during last month's Middle East summit at secluded Wye Plantation has dissipated and that the US will be called in as referee throughout the implementation process.

Commenting on the confusion that has accompanied the first days of the agreement, Israeli journalist Hemi Shalev wrote in the Maariv daily: "There were many in Israel who expected a moving drama and others who expected a horrible tragedy, but no one thought that this historic week would of all things be a comedy of errors."

(see Eqbal Ahmad: After the peace of the weak)