May 16 (Reuters) - Israel on Friday ruled out any discussion of Palestinian refugees' right to return in its peace negotiations with the Palestinians. After five months of talks, what separates the two sides? SECURITY: Ahead of U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Israel this week, Middle East envoy Tony Blair said new security arrangements were being brokered by the United States to give Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces security control over an area in the northern West Bank totalling more than 360 sq km (140 sq miles), equivalent in size to the Gaza Strip. The arrangements would initially apply to the city of Jenin and dozens of surrounding villages, but Blair said they could be extended to other parts of the West Bank later. He said Israel would retain overall security responsibility. Abbas has deployed hundreds of security personnel to Jenin to try to show that his government can exert control after a smaller deployment late last year in Nablus. Israel has said no peace agreement will be implemented until the Palestinians dismantle militant groups. Palestinians say Israeli restrictions and raids have hindered those efforts. The Islamists of Hamas, who seized control of the Gaza Strip in June after routing Abbas's Fatah forces, oppose the talks. BORDERS: Washington sees borders as the least problematic of the final-status issues and pushed for it to be tackled first. Israeli officials have reported "significant" progress on borders, but the Palestinians dispute that. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has privately expressed willingness to give up "90-something" percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip as part of a final peace deal, Western officials say. Olmert is likely to offer at least 92 percent of the West Bank plus a land swap equivalent to 4-6 percent in exchange for Jewish settlement blocs that would be part of Israel, they say. A land corridor would connect the West Bank to Gaza. Abbas has demanded the equivalent of 100 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a land area he says totals 6,205 sq km (2,396 sq miles). That is the amount of Palestinian territory Abbas estimates Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Abbas has raised the possibility of amending the pre-1967 lines and may accept a 1.5-2 percent land swap provided the end result is a state on 6,205 sq km, Palestinian officials say. JERUSALEM: There has been no sign of movement on Jerusalem. Olmert says talks have yet to touch on the issue, though some Israeli officials and the Palestinians dispute that. Olmert fears tackling Jerusalem could make the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a key coalition partner, bolt, triggering new elections. Abbas wants Arab East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, but this is not recognised internationally. One of the biggest sticking points is how to administer the Old City, site of Islam's al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, Judaism's Western Wall, and Christian holy sites. Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon, a close confidant of Olmert, has said the agreement being negotiated will not go into details such as how the Old City would be administered. In a proposal to end the conflict in December 2000, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton called for Palestinian sovereignty over the area where al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock stand. Israel would have had sovereignty over the Western Wall. REFUGEES: Neither side is ready to compromise on Palestinian refugees for now. Olmert confidants say Israel will not allow a formal "right of return" for millions of Palestinians to what is now the Jewish state. But they say a limited number of Palestinians could ask to settle in Israel on humanitarian grounds. Israel wants Abbas to give up the "right of return" in exchange for Israeli concessions on Jerusalem and borders. Abbas has pointed to language on the right of return in U.N. resolutions and an Arab League peace plan as possible models. First launched in 2002, the Arab initiative calls on Israel to reach an "agreed and just" solution for Palestinian refugees based on U.N. Resolution 194, which calls for the return of refugees -- and compensation for those who do not return. (Reporting by Adam Entous, Wafa Amr and Mohammed Assadi; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
A Red Cross worker delivers rice to a shelter for displaced people affected by Cyclone Nargis on the edge of Yangon May 12, 2008. Between 1.2 and 1.9 million people have ...
