HIGHLIGHTS: A Strict Monitoring Regime Needed to Ensure Compliance by Both Sides, Says Danish Foreign Minister of the EU||The 3-phase Proposal Calls for: Sweeping Palestinian Security Reforms Coupled with Israeli Withdrawal from Reoccupied Palestinian Territory; a Palestinian State with Provisional Borders by 2003 & Palestinian State with Final Borders by 2005||Ereqat Disappointed Quartet Failed to Agree on Anything Beyond Time Frame||Sharon Has Reservations Time Frame Unrealistic||Though Disappointed Benchmarks and Deadlines not Included in Road Map, Arab Diplomats Attending Encouraged Quartet Agreed Pan-Arab (Beirut) Peace Plan Should Compliment EU-inspired Road Map|| STORY: The international diplomatic "quartet" on the Middle East adopted a EU roadmap that envisions the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005 but failed to reach anything more than the general timing of interim steps.

Top diplomats from the quartet -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations agreed to the outline after a series of three meetings in New York that included separate consultations with Israeli and Palestinian officials as well as several Arab foreign ministers.

"The quartet is working closely with the parties and consulting key regional actors on a concrete, three-phase implementation roadmap that could achieve a final settlement within three years," the group said in a statement.

The quartet's principle members -- US Secretary of State Colin Powell, UN chief Kofi Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and current EU president, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller -- warned, though, that for the plan to succeed, a strict monitoring regime had to be established to ensure compliance by both Israel and the Palestinians.

"Progress between the three steps would be strictly based on the parties compliance with specific performance benchmarks to be monitored and assessed by the quartet," Annan said, speaking for the group.

The first phase of the three-stage proposal calls for sweeping Palestinian security reforms and an Israeli withdrawal to positions held before the start of the ongoing nearly two-year-old intifada, or uprising.

It also calls for an Israeli-Palestinian security agreement to be concluded ahead of Palestinian elections in January. As part of the first phase, the quartet called for a ministerial-level meeting of aid officials to be held in November to assess the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinians.

Palestinians expressed disappointment with the roadmap, however, with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, in Ramallah, saying the outline was just a "general statement."

"It doesn't resolve anything," Erakat said, noting the quartet's failure to reach anything beyond the general timing of interim steps.

"We were hoping the quartet would stop the Israeli aggression, the siege and closure and the Israeli terrorism against our people in order to move on with the negotiations."

Erakat accused the quartet of "ignoring the timing" of Palestinian elections on January 20, saying the leadership had hoped the quartet would send international observers to help with the electoral process.

However, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who attended a portion of the quartet's meetings along with senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath, expressed satisfaction with the outcome.

"As far as we are concerned, we approved the role of the quartet," Peres told reporters.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who discussed the EU plan this month with Moeller, reportedly has deep reservations about the plan and considers the timetable unrealistic.

Parallel to that meeting, the quartet principals are to meet again, it said in the statement.

The second phase calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state with provisional borders with a new constitution in 2003.
The third phase calls for negotiations to create a permanent Palestinian state with final borders in 2005.

The Arab diplomats who met with the quartet -- particularly Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher -- also expressed disappointment that these benchmarks and specific deadlines for them to be met were not included in the roadmap.

"We stressed that what needs to be in the roadmap needs to spell out all three phases," Moasher told reporters after the meeting.

However, he and Maher both said they were "encouraged" by the fact that the quartet members had agreed that an Arab plan -- that envisages a pan-Arab peace deal for Israel in return for land seized in the 1967 Middle East war -- should compliment the EU-inspired roadmap.

The quartet convened as the United Nations has been largely preoccupied with Iraq and against the backdrop of another Israeli military incursion into the Gaza Strip and a bomb blast at a Palestinian school in the West Bank that wounded five children.

The group urged Israel to move to ease the living conditions of the Palestinians and called for the immediate halt to Israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories.

It also called on Israel to ensure "full, safe and unfettered access for international and humanitarian personnel."

PHOTO CAPTION

(Top) United States Secretary of State Colin Powell (L) speaks at a press conference with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (C) and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov (R), September 17, 2002 at the United Nations in New York. REUTERS/Peter Morgan
- Sep 17 1:04 PM ET

(Bottom) Palestinian Planning Minister and delegation member Nabil Shaath, right, sits with others as he prepares for a meeting of the quartet, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2002, at the United Nations in New York. The Quartet _ consisting of senior officials from the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia _ met Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
- Sep 17 1:32 PM ET