Palestinians want talks resumed where they stopped

Palestinian leaders have urged the resumption of peace talks with Israel from the point where they stopped.

But some called for continued struggle as the new Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon laid out tough guidelines for resuming negotiations.

While demanding a halt to violence and disowning concessions proposed by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, trounced in Tuesday's election, Mr Sharon's aides showed glimmers of flexibility toward the Palestinians.

Mr Sharon made his first moves to form a coalition government, appointing a negotiating team to meet with the myriad parties in Israel's fractious parliament.

He hoped for a broad-based government including Mr Barak's Labor party, but appeared assured only of a small majority in parliament among hawkish and Orthodox Jewish factions.

Meanwhile, Palestinan leaders considered the new situation.

After a four-hour meeting late on Wednesday, the Palestinian Cabinet issued a statement saying that Mr Sharon's election is an "internal Israeli matter" and called on him to resume peace negotiations from the point where they left off under Mr Barak's regime.

But Sharon aides said there was no chance of that. Adviser Raanan Gissin said the prime minister would be bound only by signed agreements, not by proposals made by his predecessor.

Another aide, Eyal Arad, said Mr Sharon was determined not to renew negotiations until all Palestinian violence stops.

The Palestinians turned down Mr Barak's proposals, and Israeli voters repudiated them by turning him out of office by a huge margin, 62.5% to 37.4%.