Palestinians yesterday gave Israel the names of 120 prisoners they want freed to try to boost the faltering peace moves between the two sides.
Dr Ahmed Tibi, adviser to the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, said Palestinian negotiators were waiting for a response to the list, which included prisoners who were ill.
Dr Tibi also repeated a Palestinian demand that Israel offer new ideas for breaking a 16-month-old deadlock in the Middle East peace process.
He told reporters that should the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu's negotiators fail to offer new ideas at talks later yesterday, that meeting could be the last.
The Israeli Public Security Minister, Mr Avigdor Kahalani, said last week he supported freeing some Palestinian prisoners as a confidence-building measure. Mr Kahalani said the prisoners he wanted released belonged to Mr Arafat's Fatah faction and had no "blood on their hands".
"This morning we provided Minister Kahalani with 120 names of prisoners we want to be released, especially those who are sick, and we are still waiting for an answer," Dr Tibi said.
Mr Kahalani did not say how many prisoners might be freed but news reports said about 100 were being considered for release.
Israel has let thousands of Palestinians go under peace deals reached since 1993. Palestinian officials say more than 3,000 Palestinians remain jailed by Israel.
In Gaza yesterday, dozens of Palestinians marched with pictures of their sons, prisoners in Israel's jails, to Mr Arafat's office in Gaza City, demanding that he secure their release.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams held two rounds of talks last week. Israel has so far resisted a US and Palestinian-backed plan for it to give Palestinians 13 per cent more of the West Bank.
Mr Arafat's Palestinian Authority said on Saturday the direct talks with Israel on the US peace plan were a "waste of time".
Palestinians announced yesterday that they had found the remains of a 5,000 year-old Canaanite city near Nablus, their first independent archeological discovery in the West Bank.
Archeologists from An-Najah University in Nablus unveiled the discovery of the ancient city of Shakim on a hill west of the city known as Tel Sofer.
Prof Jalal Qazuh, head of the An-Najah archaeology department, showed journalists the vestiges of a well, cistern and walls found in two holes excavated on the side of Tel Sofer.
"This constitutes the remains of a Canaanite city situated on this hill around 3,000 BC," Prof Qazuh said.
"This is the first ever archeological discovery by Palestinians and is a response to the [Israeli] side's negation of our existence here," he said of the pre-Israelite remains.
Prof Qazuh said coins and pottery found at the site attested to the presence of more than one civilisation but gave no additional details, saying the initial findings were still being analysed.
Dr Khalil Awdah, dean of the An-Najah art school, said the university planned to pursue excavations at Tel Sofer and other sites near Nablus.