Israel, PLO Negotiators Meet in Tunis to Address Impasse : Mideast: U.S. envoy, present at talks, say three sides held ‘good discussions.’ But no breakthrough is announced.

Senior Israeli and Palestinian negotiators closeted themselves in Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat’s villa Monday with America’s chief Mideast coordinator to try to break the impasse that has stalled Middle East peace negotiations.

Dennis Ross, the State Department coordinator for the region, said the three sides held “good discussions.”

He prepared for possible consultations with the Israelis at his hotel through the night before his scheduled visit to Damascus this morning.

“There’s still more work to be done, but there’s work being done that’s important, and we’re going to keep at it,” Ross said, leaving Arafat’s villa shortly before midnight.

A PLO official said the talks “went well” but needed more time.

“I think we’re getting to the point where we can see that an agreement is possible,” he said.

Arafat met for several hours with an Israeli delegation headed by Uri Savir, director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, before meeting with Ross to discuss the possible resumption of Palestinian self-rule talks, frozen since the massacre of about 30 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque by a Jewish settler last month.

The two sides then held another round of talks Monday night, as the United States tried to find common ground on Palestinian demands for increased security for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in the wake of the mosque attack.

PLO sources said the proposals offered by Israel--reportedly including a Palestinian police force in Hebron under Israeli control, designation of Red Cross observers as all or part of an international force in the occupied territories and rounding up Jewish settlers in the Hebron area into a single location--are still insufficient.

Arafat is said to have responded derisively to the proposal for Red Cross observers in place of the armed international force of observers sought by the PLO.

“He thought the idea was funny,” a PLO official said. “Some people are now even starting to make jokes about it--about how the international observers will come in with Band-Aids instead of guns.”

Another Arafat adviser said the PLO rejected Israel’s move for relocating Hebron settlers into a single group, insisting that all of them be moved out of the area. The PLO has also rejected the idea of a Palestinian police force under Israeli control.

But there were indications as the talks progressed that some common ground may be possible to get the negotiations back on track, if not as early as Thursday, when Israel Radio reported hopes for a meeting in Paris between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

One PLO official said the Israeli delegation seemed to be sympathetic to the PLO need for a public move on Palestinian security in the wake of widespread anger and growing opposition to the peace process among Palestinians in the occupied territories after the Hebron massacre.

“I think they’re realistic enough to know that we need something,” a PLO official said. “The most important thing is to start the negotiations again so we can get the Israeli army out of Gaza and Jericho. That’s the first step. Because I don’t think any of us are so naive not to know that when it comes down to a confrontation between Palestinians and a Jewish settler, which side the army’s going to be on.”

Yasser Abed-Rabbo, head of the PLO’s information department, said the meetings Monday afternoon consisted mainly of an exchange of views.

“There were no results until now,” he added.

Peres, in remarks broadcast Monday, said he expected the PLO to participate in peace talks along with Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in early April.

In Israel, meantime, there was speculation in the media Monday that Israel might show some flexibility on troop withdrawals. The Hebrew daily Maariv reported that Israel is prepared to begin withdrawing troops from Gaza even before a final agreement is reached in a renewed round of negotiations.

Times staff writer Mark Fineman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.