JERUSALEM'Israel and the Palestinians accepted a U.S. proposal Sunday aimed at lifting the Israeli army's month-long siege of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat inside his West Bank headquarters.
The deal, based on a proposal by President Bush, would release Arafat from weeks spent trapped on two floors of his shattered offices in Ramallah and defuse one of the most contentious issues dividing the two sides.
Palestinian officials said they expected the siege to be lifted as early as today.
At his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush praised the Israeli and Palestinian decisions as \important steps along the path to peace.""
At the same time, Bush, who was originally reluctant to involve his administration in the Middle East, said that Arafat must act decisively ""in word and in deed against terror directed at Israeli citizens.""
""Chairman Arafat is now free to move around and free to lead,"" Bush said. ""And we expect him to do so.""
Sunday's apparent breakthrough came amid a flurry of developments, as the Cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also announced that it would bar a U.N. team from investigating Israel's recent assault on a West Bank refugee camp. An Israeli Cabinet minister said the government rejected the inquiry because it feared the United Nations was ""out to get us.""
The U.S. proposal, approved overwhelmingly by the Sharon Cabinet, centers on a group of six men, wanted by Israel, who have been holed up with Arafat and about 100 others in the besieged headquarters. Under terms accepted by both sides, the men would be allowed to serve their sentences in a Palestinian prison under the control of American and British guards.
In exchange, Arafat would be allowed to travel freely in Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or perhaps even abroad for the first time since December.
Until the proposal, which Bush made Saturday in telephone calls to Sharon, Israel had insisted that the Palestinians surrender the wanted men before it would agree to withdraw the tanks and troops that have encircled Arafat's offices since March 29.
After Sharon's Cabinet voted Sunday afternoon to accept the plan, U.S. and British consular officials conveyed the proposal to Arafat in Ramallah. A few hours later, Palestinian representatives announced that Arafat, too, had agreed to it.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said that American and British security experts were expected to arrive in the region Monday to settle the ""technical details"" of the transfer of the six men. When those are resolved, he said, the siege will be lifted, perhaps late Monday or Tuesday.
