TEL AVIV, Israel, March 21 (UPI) -- Israeli and Palestinian military and intelligence officers Wednesday night failed to reach an agreement on a cease-fire but are to meet again, Israel radio and the Haaretz newspaper said.
U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni summoned the two sides late Wednesday in an attempt to arrange a cease-fire and implement a work plan designed to ensure it.
U.S. and Israeli officials were secretive about the meeting and would not say where they met, but Haaretz said it was held at U.S. Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer's residence, north of Tel Aviv.
The forum, the Israeli-Palestinian-U.S. Trilateral Supreme Security Committee, met with Zinni Monday and the U.S. general said later they discussed "a variety of issues related to the implementation of the Tenet security work plan" and would follow up on those discussions. Sharp differences reportedly emerged then, and were not resolved.
Israel Radio and Haaretz said after midnight the Palestinians demanded Israel withdraw to the lines it held before the intifada broke out, lift closures it has imposed on Palestinian towns and remove roadblocks.
Earlier this week, Israeli troops withdrew from the fully autonomous Palestinian areas in the West Bank but continued to maintain closures around them, the Israel Defense Forces spokesman said.
The Israelis demanded the Palestinians maintain a cease-fire, arrest militants and disarm extremist groups.
"In each place they will act, we will remove closures, roadblocks and move troops," an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told United Press International before the meeting.
Zinni talked to Sharon Wednesday morning after a suicide bomber killed seven Israelis and wounded 29. Sharon said that he and Zinni "see eye to eye on the severity of the situation." Zinni traveled to the West Bank town of Ramallah and conferred with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney Tuesday went as far as offering to return to the area, shortly, and meet Arafat if the Palestinian leader implements understandings that CIA director George Tenet worked out last summer to stop the violence.
The Tenet plan calls for both sides to enforce strict adherence to a cease-fire and sets a timetable for various steps to strengthen peace. The plan was named for CIA Director George Tenet, who negotiated it with Israeli and Palestinian leaders last June.
It is designed to pave the way for implementing the Mitchell committee recommendations that should increase confidence and lead to a resumption of negotiations over a settlement.
Israel held its fire after the bus bombing and did not repeat past declarations to retaliate each attack.
"We are now in the midst of an attempt to get both sides onto a track that would lead to a cease-fire. We must continue. We must not stop," Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said.
"The situation requires us to speed up processes, with all the pain (of the attacks) ... towards a cease-fire, moving towards Tenet, and if that will work everybody will benefit from it," he added.
The Palestinian Authority, too, said they want to implement the Tenet plan and have condemned the bus attack.
