Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held their second summit yesterday, following up on a February meeting in which they declared a ceasefire after more than four years of bloodshed.
Following is a rundown of issues addressed at the summit:
¤ Coordinating Israel's Gaza pull-out. Israel plans to begin evacuating all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank in mid-August. Israeli and Palestinian officials have been discussing security coordination to ensure Palestinian militants do not disrupt the pull-out. Both sides have also agreed on the demolition of settlement houses, freeing the land for Palestinian high-rise construction, and to work out a plan for the removal of rubble. Mr Abbas wants Mr Sharon to agree to ease the movement of people and goods across Gaza's Israel-controlled borders.
¤ Ensuring that any ceasefire holds. Violence has dropped sharply but not stopped completely in the four months since Mr Abbas and Mr Sharon announced a ceasefire. Mr Sharon is likely to repeat his bedrock demand that Mr Abbas disarm militants and dismantle their organisations. Mr Abbas says such confrontation can lead to civil war and prefers to coopt the militants into the Palestinian security services and political mainstream. Mr Abbas also wants Israel to halt army raids to arrest militants it says are planning attacks.
¤ Israeli pull-backs from Palestinian West Bank cities. Israel has handed over two West Bank cities to Palestinian security control since the February summit and has pledged to pull its forces away from three more. The city of Jenin, near West Bank settlements due to be evacuated in August, appears to be next in line.
¤ Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners. Israel has freed 900 prisoners as a goodwill gesture to Mr Abbas since the ceasefire was declared. It has said it will consider releasing more of the nearly 8,000 Palestinians in its jails, but insists those convicted of deadly attacks remain behind bars. Palestinians particularly want long-serving prisoners to go free.
¤ Reviving a US-backed peace "road map" charting mutual steps towards creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Israel's main ally, the United States, calls the Gaza pull-out a historic opportunity to move forward towards a permanent peace deal. Mr Sharon says there can be no talks on Palestinian statehood until Mr Abbas disarms and dismantles militant groups.
¤ Israeli settlement activity. Under the road map, Israel is to freeze all "settlement activity", including construction to accommodate the "natural growth" in the populations of the 145 settlements it has built on occupied land. Israel says "natural growth" must continue.
¤ A final Middle East peace treaty. Mr Abbas sticks to the long-time Palestinian line that a state must include all the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza, while war refugees and millions of their descendants should have the "right to return" to lands in what is now Israel.
Those demands remain dealbreakers for Israel, which wants to keep major West Bank settlement blocs, sees East Jerusalem as part of its own "indivisible capital" and categorically rules out an influx of large numbers of Palestinian refugees to the Jewish state.