The core issues are the final borders of the two states, the status of Jerusalem and the Old City and a solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees.
"In the near future we will bring about the shaping of the final borders of the state, guaranteeing a Jewish democratic state," he said.
Referendums will need to be held, as required by Iraq's Constitution, to determine the final borders of the three regions.
The Palestinians have rightly criticized this as a major obstacle to ever resolving one of the most emotional and intractable issues between the two: the final borders of Israel and eventually Palestine, and the dividing up of Jerusalem.
On the diplomatic front, the Palestinian side is impatient to resume negotiations on the core issues of a peace settlement, including the final borders of a future Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and refugees, raising expectations that might be frustrated.
Mr. Cheney and his allies supported Mr. Sharon's request, but the State Department had always taken the position that the issue — with the final borders of a Palestinian state and how Jerusalem might be shared by the two sides — should be decided through negotiations, not by fiat from Washington.
The final borders of the Armenian nation were a fraction of what many Westerners, including President Woodrow Wilson, had originally envisioned.
It was also after this conflict that the final borders of Belarus were set by Stalin when parts of Belorussian territory were given to the recently annexed Lithuania.
After three years of sometimes contentious negotiating sessions overseen by professional mediators, the group has formulated a nonbinding model that could be put into action once the final borders of a Palestinian state are defined.
Three years ago the public elected the centrist Kadima party to head a government that talked boldly of drawing up final borders for the Jewish state.
