
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 31, 1993                   TAG: 9312310054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-16   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAIRO, EGYPT                                LENGTH: Short

ARAFAT TURNS DOWN ISRAEL-PLO TERMS

Israeli and PLO negotiators, whose efforts to implement their peace accord have been stymied by old disputes, said Thursday it's back to the negotiating table again.

Hopes for a quick breakthrough faded when Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat left Cairo without approving compromises worked out by Israeli and Palestinian teams in three days of meetings.

The usually talkative Arafat didn't speak with reporters as he departed for consultations with Jordan's King Hussein, or on arrival in Amman, Jordan's capital.

"Arafat did not accept the Israeli proposals as they were presented to the Palestinians during the talks," Dr. Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli-Arab physician who has often been a go-between for the PLO with the Israelis, said in Jerusalem.

The latest talks failed because of the dispute over who will control the borders to Jordan and Egypt from the West Bank town of Jericho and from the Gaza Strip, the two regions where Palestinian self-rule will start.

The dispute mirrors a decades-old conflict - Israel's desire for security vs. the Palestinians' demand for sovereignty.

The border issue and other disputes have delayed Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres suggested Wednesday that the April 13 deadline for completing the withdrawal also could slip.

by CNB