Peres unveils three-point Mid-East peace plan

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has revealed details of a plan to try to end the violence between Israel and the Palestinians and find a lasting peace agreement.

Mr Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said the plan contains three stages, starting with a ceasefire, moving to mutual recognition between Israel and a Palestinian state and ending with agreement on the borders of a new Palestine.

Mr Peres said the Palestinian state would initially be on territory currently controlled by the Palestinian Authority - about 65% of the Gaza Strip and 40% of the West Bank.

When the plan moves to its third phase, the two sides would negotiate permanent borders on the basis of UN resolutions 242 and 338, which call for Israel to withdraw fully from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, territories it seized in the 1967 Mid-East War.

The Peres plan was worked out with Palestinian Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qureia, but it is unlikely to be accepted by hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.