JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has drafted an interim peace plan for a Palestinian state and presented the proposal to Palestinian leaders, Israel's biggest newspaper reported on Sunday.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office dismissed the report as fiction. A statement issued by Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the reported proposals fell far short of the state Palestinians envisioned.
Observers say despite the cold water poured on the purported plan, its apparent leak to the newspaper suggested that senior leaders from both sides may be looking past Israeli-Palestinian violence now in its 15th month toward a permanent peace deal.
The Yedioth Ahronoth daily said Peres had proposed the establishment of a Palestinian state on 42 percent of the West Bank and most of the Gaza Strip no later than two months after the interim deal is signed, followed by talks on a final accord.
Palestinians have demanded a state in all of the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.
Abed Rabbo, referring to the patchwork of territory now under the control of the Palestinian Authority, said in the statement the reported plan would only ``transform the names of the cantons and isolated areas from an Authority to a state.''
Palestinians would ``remain under a de facto occupation, but under an illusive cover called a 'state.'''
Yedioth Ahronoth published on its front page what it said was a photograph of one of the pages of the peace proposal which it said Peres drafted with Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Korei, also known as Abu Ala.
Abu Ala was not immediately available for comment.