U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan cautioned that in proposing a "road map" to settlement of more than a half-century of conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the leaders based their goal on hope as well as security and other steps still not taken.

Still, Annan called the meeting historic. "We intend to be steadfast" in seeing the plan through, he said.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller of Denmark and other European Union leaders joined Annan in a conference room in the basement of U.N. headquarters.

The communique they issued did little to clarify what an eventual provisional Palestinian state would entail except that it would have temporary borders and be a way station to a permanent state.

The communique was the first major political document by the Quartet, an ad hoc enterprise of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States to bring an end to the Middle East impasse. The Quartet's expanding role reflects a sharing by the Bush administration of what for three decades has been a virtual U.S. monopoly on peacemaking efforts.

Powell has made two trips to the area since he took his job in January 2001. A senior U.S. official said he has no immediate plan to return.

Five Arab nations, Israel and the Palestinian Authority participated in Tuesday's meeting.

The plan outlined in the communique has three phases, with the aim of a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians by 2005.

It specifies that Israel should end its 35-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza but does not say whether Israel should give up all land the Arabs lost in the 1967 Six Day War. Nor was there a direct reference to Jerusalem, part of which Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat expects for a capital.

The document also deplored and condemned "the morally repugnant violence and terror" that gripped the area until recently and said it must end.

Jordan's foreign minister, Marwan Muashar, said the Arabs were not demanding concessions only by the Israelis. He said they were offering Israel a peace treaty, security guarantees and an end to their conflict with the Arabs.

Muashar said the Arabs also told the Quartet "there needs to be a very strong monitoring mechanism to ensure the sides are meeting their obligations on time."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said the Arabs held that it is up to the Palestinians to decide who will be their leader. "You cannot have democratic elections, the results of which you determine in advance," Maher said in differing with the Bush administration on Arafat's future.

At a news conference, Powell denounced Arafat's "failed leadership," words US President Bush used when he demanded in June that Arafat must go.

A principal Arafat deputy, Nabil Shaath, represented the Palestinians at the conference. Bush met with Shaath, the Palestinian minister for international planning and cooperation, last week at the United Nations.

Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon also had ministers at Tuesday's meeting.

To prepare for a state, the Quartet suggested the Palestinians adopt a constitution with provisions to stop corruption and to provide "the vibrant political system which Palestinians deserve."

Early next year, in the first phase of the plan, the Palestinians would hold "fair and credible" elections that Israel was urged to help bring about by withdrawing its military forces from Palestinian-controlled areas.

Powell said the Quartet will work out ways "where the people are able to get back and forth to participate in such an election process."

Israel has said it is doing what it can to allow for free movement of Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza, considering that security cooperation has been minimal.

Israel's occupation would end in the plan's third phase through a settlement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Oslo agreement of 1993 called for Israel to withdraw in stages. While the agreement was never completed, Israel had pulled back to the extent that the vast majority of Palestinians were in areas wholly or partially administered by Arafat's Palestinian Authority. But in September 2000, responding to a Palestinian uprising, Israel partially reversed course.

(China Daily September 18, 2002)