Palestinian President Yasser Arafat today said Israel had offered nothing "tangible" under the US-proposed "road map" for peace in the Middle East.
Mr Arafat, who was excluded from yesterday's landmark talks in Jordan but played a behind-the-scenes role, dismissed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pledge to uproot some settler outposts in the West Bank as meaningless.
"Unfortunately he has not yet offered anything tangible," the Palestinian leader told reporters at his battered West Bank headquarters in Ramallah. "What's the significance of removing a caravan from one location and then saying 'I have removed a settlement'?"
Brought together by US President George W Bush, Mr Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas committed to set in motion an international plan to end 32 months of violence.
Opposition to the plan has come from both sides in the conflict. Last night, several thousand Israelis gathered in Jerusalem to oppose the giving up of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories proposed by the road map.
US President George W Bush won a key Israeli pledge to start uprooting some settlement outposts in the West Bank in exchange for an end to the Palestinian intifadaat a landmark summit on yesterday.
"Great hope and change is coming to the Middle East," Mr Bush said before the two prime ministers shook hands for the first time in public at the three-way summit in the Jordanian Red Sea port city of Aqaba.
After 75 minutes of talks with Mr Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Mr Abbas, Mr Bush said all sides had made important commitments. Like a cowboy, he would "ride herd" to try to ensure their fulfillment, he said.
The road map includes the creation of a Palestinian state in 2005 after the two sides complete reciprocal confidence-building steps that include a freeze on settlement expansion.
In closing speeches, Mr Sharon and Mr Abbas said they both envisioned a time when Israeli and Palestinian states would live side by side in peace.
But questions remain over whether Mr Abbas would be able to make good on his vows to persuade militants to stop attacking Israelis in the 32-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.
For their part, the Palestinians have questioned Mr Sharon's commitment to a two-state solution and to taking the politically risky move of dismantling Jewish settlements.