Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today that Israel could not implement the Mitchell report on ending Israeli-Palestinian violence until the Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire.
He also refused to freeze Jewish settlements, as the report recommends, but pledged not to expropriate more land to expand them in Israeli-occupied areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"I propose to our neighbors to work together for an immediate cease-fire and hope the Palestinians will answer the call positively," Mr Sharon told a news conference. "Then we can begin carrying out the outlines of the Mitchell report."
Mr Sharon appeared to make a limited concession to Palestinian demands on settlements.
Having stressed that Israel would not comply with a freeze in Israeli settlement activity, he added: "We certainly see no need to expropriate lands for the settlements... There is enough land. In connection with that subject, I see no problem."
But Mr Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a senior aide to the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said Mr Sharon's statement implied an Israeli rejection of Mr Mitchell's committee report.
"Sharon's remarks represented a rejection to recommendations stated in the Mitchell report," Mr Abdel-Rahman said.
"He wanted to assure settlers that he was ready to launch war for the sake of keeping them on Palestinian land regardless of criticism by Mitchell committee or international forums," he said.
The report, released on Monday by a panel chaired by former US Senator George Mitchell, calls for an immediate cessation of violence followed by confidence-building measures and a resumption of security cooperation and peace negotiations.
"There is no link between the halt of violence and the subject of settlements," Mr Sharon said. "This subject has to be discussed between the two sides in the future."
He noted that interim agreements had stipulated that settlements would be discussed in the framework of a final status deal.
Within minutes of Sharon's comments, chief Palestinian peace negotiator Mr Saeb Erekat told CNN television: "I hope to God that Sharon will say 'yes' to the Mitchell report."
Mr Erekat offered little hope that the Palestinians, for their part, would call an immediate halt to violence as a prelude to talks, as Sharon demanded.