Jerusalem: In a setback to the Middle East peace process, the talks between senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials failed to reach an agreement on the planned Israeli withdrawal from the two West Bank cities of Jericho and Qalqilyah, media reports said.

"The meeting between the two sides ended without agreeing on a timetable for the withdrawal from Palestinian cities, because the Israeli side insisted on keeping the military roadblocks," Palestinian authority sources said after the talks on August 17 night.

Minister of Defence Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian Authority Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan had principally agreed to the transfer of security control of these cities to Palestinian Authority in their meeting last week.

Israel said it was prepared to hand over security control of the West Bank cities of Jericho and Qalqilyah as early as this week, and Tulkarm and Ramallah, in the last week of August, the 'Jerusalem Post' said in a report.

West Bank cities of Jericho and Tulkarm would not be transferred to Palestinian security control until a mechanism for the supervision of the activities of militants and fugitives wanted by Israel could be agreed upon by both sides, the 'Post' quoted senior Israeli officials as saying.

Israel wants a firm guarantee from Dahlan that the Palestinian fugitives wanted by Israel for their involvement in terrorism, will not revert back to terrorist activities once the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) stops hunting them in the cities being handed over to the Palestinian Authority, it said.

PTI