Erekat recounts progress before mideast talks failed

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) The top Palestinian negotiator says before talks broke down in January, Israel proposed a Palestinian state in all of the Gaza Strip and the equivalent of the West Bank.

In a rare public assessment, negotiator Saeb Erekat (sah-EEB' EHR'-ih-kaht) says the Palestinians turned it down because of a dispute over Jerusalem. He spoke today to followers in the West Bank city of Hebron.

He says the Palestinians insist on full sovereignty over one of the most important religious sites in the world. It's where the al-Aqsa Mosque was built over the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples. It's the third-holiest site in Islam but the holiest for Jews.

Erekat said the Palestinians declined an Israeli offer of a joint committee to run the site.

Erekat's speech comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flies to Washington to meet President Barack Obama tomorrow.

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