GAZA CITY, October 18 (IslamOnline & News agencies) - A U.S.-backed roadmap for ending the Middle East conflict is not "credible" unless it comes with guarantees, including an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories, the Palestinians said Friday, October 18.

"Any new initiative must be accompanied by guarantees," Nabil Abu Rudeina, a senior advisor to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We demand the Israelis retreat from all the territories occupied since 1967 and the halt to the aggression against the Palestinian people," he said.

Unless it came with those provisions it would not be "credible," he said.

The (so-called) U.S. "roadmap," to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians, presented earlier this week to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington, calls for establishing an interim Palestinian state before the end of 2003. Shortly thereafter, the draft plan calls for both sides to begin negotiations for a permanent agreement, including final borders, to be completed by 2005, according to Israeli daily Ha’aretz.

It was drawn up last month in New York by the so-called diplomatic Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - trying to solve the chronicle crisis.

A high-ranking Israeli official told reporters Friday that Israel would study the document championed by U.S. President George W. Bush.

"Nobody has any intention of imposing it on us. It is only a plan that takes up the principles already presented by President Bush," he said.

"What is important is that it is a document that lays out stages, and the passage from one stage to another depends on the application of the preceding one," he added.

The official stressed that the first phase of the plan calls for "a halt to (Palestinian) terrorism and the reforms of the Palestinian Authority."

Bush called on June 24 for a Palestinian state alongside Israel on condition that Palestinians dump Arafat - whom he accuses of terrorism and corruption - as their leader.

However, observers and analysts have since then paid little consideration to Bush’s talk about peace, citing the U.S. clear support for Sharon’s hostile policies.

The U.S. leader is also sending his top diplomat for the Middle East, William Burns, to the region this week for talks on counter terrorism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq.

But Abu Rudeina said Washington has not contacted the Palestinian side about Burns' visit.

Relations between the sides have been chilly since Bush implemented the decision in June to have his administration deal with Palestinian officials other than Arafat.

Meanwhile, an international group of diplomats will next month present detailed proposals to resolve the Middle East crisis and create a Palestinian state by 2005, a senior Palestinian Minister said Friday.

The quartet would unveil the plan in November, said International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath.

The quartet "is making progress. I hope they really conclude a comprehensive detailed plan with a timeline, with monitoring on the ground," he told reporters after talks with the Danish Presidency of the European Union.

"I believe some progress is being made... We are hopeful that something can be done" to secure peace and progress," said Shaath, who held separate talks with the quartet members in Paris Thursday, October 17.

The group met in New York in September and agreed on a general framework to ensure peace and stability in the Middle East - crucially including the aim of creating a Palestinian state by 2005 - but failed to fill in the details.

For his part, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said, “Palestine has to make its reforms, has to show restraint and stop the suicide bombers and Israel has to stop the escalation each time there has been a suicide bomber".

Condemning Thursday's attack, he added: "Of course we're very depressed about the situation in Gaza, the killings in Rafah, the attack there, we do not think it's helpful killing children and civilians. It's not the way forward."

"How much blood are we going to waste on that road?"

The condemnation followed a statement from the EU presidency urging restraint.

"Irrespective of the circumstances, the lives of civilians, be it children or adults, must be protected and spared," it said.

The 15-member union also called on Israel to deliver to the Palestinian Authority tax revenues which it has been refusing to hand over.

"Israel has to give money back to the Palestinian Authority to alleviate the situation and make the economy rise again" said Moeller.

Shaath added that Palestinians were "devastated by the siege, the continued attack by Israel on civilians and the destruction of Palestinian property and keeping away the money."