TEL AVIV -- Israelis and Palestinians Saturday began their final push to agree on an outline for a final peace pact by a May 13 deadline. But the two sides appear far apart on every issue, ranging from the status of Jerusalem to whose turn it is to show flexibility.

Israeli officials said they were ready to make the necessary compromises to get an agreement with the Palestinians on the contours of a final treaty, but they warned that this would require movement from the Palestinians as well."We're coming to the negotiations with the view that these are very important talks -- with a historical burden after 100 years of conflict, and we think that now is the time to reach a comprehensive agreement," said Gadi Baltiansky, spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

"We are going to show flexibility and willingness, but without them showing flexibility, it will be impossible to reach an agreement," he said.

Some members of Barak's cabinet have recently suggested giving the Palestinians 70 to 80 percent of the West Bank, a sharp increase from previous proposals but still short of Palestinian demands for return of all the lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, who will meet today with his Israeli counterpart, Oded Eran, in the Israeli resort town of Eilat on the Red Sea, said the Palestinians had already compromised enough.

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He said the Palestinians have shown both flexibility and a commitment to peace by proposing to establish their independent state in the West Bank and Gaza -- rather than demanding the return of historic Palestine -- and now it is Israel's turn to prove its sincerity by showing flexibility.

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