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JERUSALEM - Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Saturday there was no point in holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unless Israel halts construction of a much-criticized security wall.
Israel - which has rebuffed international calls to stop building the barrier - expressed renewed determination to move ahead with the construction.
"If the Israeli government says it will continue building the wall regardless of what happens, then there is no need for any meeting," Qureia said. "I am not saying this as a precondition, but I want serious positions (from Israel)."
Qureia's tough words came hours before he traveled to neighboring Jordan for a meeting with U.S. envoy William Burns, who was returning to the region in hopes of reviving the stalled "road map" peace plan.
Qureia has said he plans to present a truce agreement to the Israeli government in hopes of reaching a cease-fire deal that could revive talks. The U.S.-backed plan calls for a series of steps leading to an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
Israeli officials said Sharon would not agree to any Palestinian demands as a condition to a meeting by the two leaders.
Israel says the disputed barrier is necessary to block Palestinian suicide bombers. Palestinians say the structure is an Israeli effort to seize Palestinian land. The barrier of razor wire, fences, concrete walls and trenches is expected to run 430 miles along the Israel-West Bank border. When it is completed, parts will dip deep into the West Bank.
Qureia's remarks on Saturday came a day after the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, released an 11-page report calling the Israeli barrier "a deeply counterproductive act" that had already caused "serious socioeconomic harm" to the Palestinian people.
Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Sharon, said construction of the fence will continue as long as Israel feels its security is threatened. But he left the door open to negotiations if the Palestinians make progress on halting militants.
"It's somewhat curious for a Palestinian prime minister supposedly committed to peace to object to something whose one and only purpose is to protect human lives," Shoval said.
"If terror would stop altogether and terror organizations would be broken up ... there won't be a need for a fence."
Officials on both sides say privately there is little reason to believe Israel will meet Qureia's demands for a halt to building the wall, but say Sharon could take steps to sweeten any agreement to meet. High on the list would be the lifting of tight military restrictions on Palestinians' movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
But the security barrier has come to symbolize accumulated bitterness on both sides stemming from three years of conflict that has claimed more than 850 Israeli lives and more than 2,750 Palestinian ones.
Palestinian officials continue to say only the U.S. can apply sufficient pressure to force concessions from Sharon.
"We want the U.S. to be involved with all its efforts in the peace process," Qureia said Saturday. "We hope it is prepared to do that."
Palestinians had voiced disappointment last week with the United States withholding $289-million in loan guarantees in order to express disapproval of some Israeli actions in the West Bank. The Palestinians said it amounted to a penalty of only a few million dollars to the Israeli government, which would have to raise the money under less favorable terms.
Qureia's criticism of Israel may have been aimed at gaining credibility with the militants ahead of cease-fire talks beginning in Cairo on Tuesday. Qureia said he planned to attend the last few days of the Cairo talks.
- Information from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Associated Press were used in this report.