Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts are finally moving into high gear after 32 months of Intifada conflict.
Israel is to withdraw its troops from West Bank cities and northern Gaza, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas during three hours of talks in Jerusalem last night.
And, provided that Mr Abbas proves capable of "fighting terrorism", Mr Sharon further pledged, Israel would enter substantive peace negotiations aimed ultimately at establishing Palestinian state-hood.
The two men restated their commitment to implementing the US-backed "road map" to peace, their aides said. And Mr Sharon also agreed to release dozens of Palestinian security prisoners, allow thousands of Palestinian labourers to cross into Israel to work, and lift some restrictions on Palestinian movement around the West Bank.
However, he said the army would remain deployed around the major cities, poised to enter if there was a fear that attacks on Israel were being planned and Mr Abbas's security forces were failing to intervene.
The Israeli Prime Minister is demanding that, once the army pulls back, Mr Abbas deploy Palestinian security forces to disarm Hamas and other groups that have carried out suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli citizens.
A White House spokesman yesterday explicitly backed this stance, demanding that the Palestinian Authority "completely disarm and disable those groups that oppose the two-state solution".
Mr Abbas appears to be on the brink of agreeing a short-term truce with Hamas. The Israeli fear is that this will not be followed by more aggressive intervention, and that Hamas will use the respite afforded by an Israeli military pull-back to regroup and launch new attacks.
Mr Abbas had wanted a guarantee that Israel would cease its so-called "targeted killings" of Intifada orchestrators and other military activities in areas where his forces retake control.
The Israeli army was in action in Jenin only yesterday, making arrests and killing an Arafat loyalist gunman in one clash. Mr Abbas had also urged Mr Sharon to dismantle dozens of barely populated settlement outposts that have been erected these past two or three years, and to freeze building at other settlements.
The talks in Jerusalem last night came four days after the Israeli cabinet approved the "road map", at the urging of the United States. Mr Sharon had been stalling on the peace plan, which provides for interim Palestinian statehood by 2005. But he ultimately chose to alienate the Israeli right rather than President Bush.
Last night's talks were designed, in part, to provide the appropriate context for Mr Bush's upcoming visit to the region.