Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has pulled out of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon because of a row over a prisoner release.
The two were due to meet tomorrow to coincide with Israel's planned release of 342 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday.
Palestinian leaders are angry at the prisoner releases, saying they do not go far enough. The Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called the releases "a fraud" and asked "What is this? Is this deception? Are they deceiving nations?"
The Palestinians want an amnesty for all 6,000 of their jailed compatriots, saying this would show Israel is committed to the road map leading to creation of a Palestinian state by 2005 in territories occupied by Israel since 1967.
They are angry that only 342 prisoners will be freed ontomorrow although Israel initially said 540 would be released.
The prisoners' names were published by the Israeli prison service on the Internet to give any Israeli citizen who might oppose to a prisoner's release timeto appeal to Israel's Supreme Court to keep him in jail.
"Abu Mazen cancelled the meeting because it will only be ceremonial on the day prisoners are released, and he believes the Israelis are not doing enough to promote the road map," a senior Palestinian official said, using Abbas's nom de guerre.
Israel, for its part, accuses Abbas of holding up the peace plan by not cracking down on militants and has ruled out any further troop withdrawals from West Bank cities.
The Palestinian leadership say a crackdown on militantgroups would spark a civil war.
Abbas and Sharon have met several times in recent weeks in talks that have helped build confidence and promote the road map, but deep mistrust remains between the two sides.