Sharon calls peace talks a campaign ploy by Barak

Likud leader says he won't comply with latest agreements

In this story: Israeli soldiers defuse explosives Possible resumption of talks Upbeat assessment 'We have our own way of continuing the struggle' Major sticking points RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Likud prime minister candidate Ariel Sharon is dismissing last week's Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as a failed campaign ploy by a desperate Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Sharon leads voter polls by a wide margin.

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Six days of marathon talks in the Egyptian resort of Taba between Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and top Palestinian Authority negotiators ended on Saturday with both sides saying they were closer to agreement than ever before.

With the prime minister election set for February 6, Israelis and Palestinians are working toward a proposed peace plan after four months of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has killed 345 Palestinians, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. Israel Defense Forces lists 50 Israeli Jews and 13 Israeli Arabs dead in the fighting.

The violence has not stopped but is at a much lower level than in the early days of the clashes, which began at the end of September.

Israeli soldiers defuse explosives

Israeli soldiers on the Karni Netzarim route in northern Gaza on Sunday identified and defused a string of explosives that the IDF said was to be used to attack civilians and soldiers traveling on the road, according to the IDF Web site.

The IDF also reported it had arrested six people suspected of "hostile" activity directed against Israelis and soldiers. The arrests occurred in three West Bank towns.

Possible resumption of talks

Although both Israel and the Palestinians expressed hope of resuming the talks shortly after Israel's election, Sharon -- who staunchly opposes the Israeli concessions that Barak has offered -- made it clear that those proposals would no longer be on the table if he wins.

"Ehud Barak is endangering the state of Israel to obtain a piece of paper to help him in the election," Sharon said at a campaign stop Saturday. "Once the people of Israel find out what is in the paper and what Barak has conceded, he won't get any more votes."

Sharon leads Barak by 16 to 20 percentage points in opinion polls that have changed little in recent weeks. Most analysts say Barak needs some sort of peace agreement to energize his flagging campaign, but the Taba talks were seen as the last real shot at a pre-election breakthrough.

Upbeat assessment

Israeli sources said Sunday they plan no political contacts with the Palestinians, other than regularly scheduled security talks, until after the February 6 election for prime minister.

Senior Palestinian officials had earlier suggested there could be a summit this week between Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams gave an upbeat assessment of their talks, saying "it is our shared belief that the remaining gaps could be bridged with the resumption of negotiations following the Israeli election."

The negotiators discussed four main issues in Taba -- the fate of Palestinian refugees, borders, security and the future of Jerusalem. The four were the main obstacles to a deal after an inconclusive U.S.-brokered summit last July.

A Palestinian official said the sides had agreed not to publicize the points of agreement hammered out by the negotiating teams so that they might resume their work without intervention after the election.

'We have our own way of continuing the struggle'

The head of the Palestinian negotiating team, Ahmad Qoreia, said his side was prepared to return to negotiations after the election. But the Palestinians saw the latest round of discussions as the point of departure for future talks.

"We conduct negotiations with the elected government," Qoreia said. "If Sharon comes and wants to continue, good. If he wants to stop the negotiations then we have our own way of continuing the struggle."

But Sharon aides rejected the idea that they would be obligated to assume positions put forth by Barak.

In the peace talks, the sides appeared to be making progress on the boundaries of a future Palestinian state. The proposals under discussion called for the Palestinians to get about 95 percent of the West Bank plus Gaza. Discussions centered on how much West Bank land Israel would annex and what Palestinians would receive in compensation.

Major sticking points

However, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian war refugees and their descendants remained major sticking points. The United Nations reports there are 3.7 million Palestinian refugees and their offspring now living in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The current population of Israel is 5.7 million people, according to the World Almanac 2000.

The Palestinians are demanding that the refugees be allowed to return to lands they left behind in Israel during the 1948 war, a demand the Israeli government adamantly rejects.

In addition, the Palestinians want their capital in East Jerusalem, but Israel is reluctant to give the Palestinians full control over the city's disputed eastern sector, which includes sites holy to both Judaism and Islam.

CNN Correspondent Jerrold Kessel, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Israeli Prime Minister's Office
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Palestinian National Authority
Palestine Red Crescent Society
PLO Negotiations Affairs Deparment
Israel Defense Forces

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