JERUSALEM - Israel will turn over control of the West Bank city of Jericho to the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday as part of confidence-building measures between the two sides, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
The date was fixed at a meeting late Monday outside Tel Aviv between Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian interior minister Nasr Yousef, a report by Israeli public radio said.
After Jericho, Tulkarem and Qalqilya in the northern West Bank are to revert to Palestinian control, the radio said.
A Palestinian official confirmed to AFP the Jericho handover was to take place Wednesday, and said Tulkarem would return to Palestinian control two days later.
The announcement came as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan visited the Middle East, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in his first trip to the region in four years.
Abbas will on Tuesday hold crucial talks on establishing a permanent ceasefire -- agreed in principle at the Egyptian summit in February -- with Palestinian militant factions in Cairo.
The imminent security handover of the three cities -- which could later be followed by Ramallah and Bethlehem -- are part of confidence-building measures agreed by the Israeli and Palestinian sides at a summit in Egypt on February 8.
That meeting was the first between Sharon and Abbas since Abbas was elected head of the Palestinian authority in January.
Israeli soldiers rarely operate in Jericho so the transfer is mainly symbolic, although it will enable members of the Palestinian security forces to carry weapons.
One of the issues that held up the transfer was the Palestinians' insistence that Israel hand over control in Al-Auja village, just north of Jericho, which lies on the main north-south highway running up the Jordan Valley. Israel also refused to dismantle checkpoints along the road to Jerusalem from Jericho.
A Palestinian security takeover in Tulkarem is problematic because it is the home town of a militant who blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv nightclub last month.
A further measure to boost the Middle East peace process -- stalled for the better part of four and a half years -- was the subsequent release of 500 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody.
Late on Monday, a joint commission dealing with the fate of some 7,000 Palestinian prisoners met for the first time, with discussions taking place between Israeli Justice Minister Tzippi Livni and Soufian Abu Zaydeh, the Palestinian minister in charge of prisoner issues, reports said.
At the gathering in Jerusalem, the Palestinians presented a list of demands concerning the freeing of the prisoners, and Israeli representatives promised to give their response in coming days, Israeli media reported.
03/14/2005 22:29 GMT