Senior Israeli and PLO officials met secretly in Norway late Saturday in hopes of resolving an impasse over implementing Palestinian autonomy, Norwegian and Israeli officials said.
Israel radio said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres attended the meetings. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Gadi Blatiansky would only confirm that talks were scheduled Saturday.The Palestinian delegation was to present compromise proposals on several key security issues to the Israelis, PLO officials said.
A Dec. 12 meeting between Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Egypt ended without results, except agreement to talk again in 10 days.
The two sides will try to reach agreement before midweek, when Rabin and Arafat are tentatively scheduled to meet again in Cairo.
The Norwegian state radio network NRK quoted Norway's deputy foreign minister, Jan Egeland, as saying that talks would resume Sunday.
"We have a crisis in the negotiations," Egeland told Norwegian television prior to Saturday's meeting. "I hope and believe the parties will make it through, but there will be rough seas."
Since the accord was signed, 46 Palestinians and 14 Israelis have died in violence related to opposition to the agreement.
The agreement calls for limited Palestinian autonomy in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and Jericho in the West Bank. Israeli troop withdrawal was scheduled to begin this past Monday, with the pullout and handover of authority to the PLO completed by April 13.
However, Monday passed without changes on the ground because the two sides disagree on crucial issues. Disputes remain over border crossings from Jordan and Egypt into the autonomous areas, security for Jewish settlements and the size of the Jericho area.