U.S. urges Arafat to back plan to end standoff

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- The Bush administration Sunday said it welcomed Israel's decision that would allow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to travel freely and would accept international monitors to oversee the detention of six suspects in Arafat's Ramallah compound in the West Bank.

The deal, proposed Saturday in a telephone call between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, calls for U.S. and British monitors to supervise the jailing of six Palestinians in return for an Israeli military pullback from Ramallah and permission for Arafat to leave his compound and travel freely.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said in a statement, "This decision follows intensive efforts aimed at achieving an urgent and nonviolent resolution to the situation in Ramallah."

The statement added, "We are now in close contact with the Palestinian Authority and are working with both sides to implement proposals that we have advanced in order to achieve that objective."

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The Bush administration Sunday called on Arafat to accept the U.S. proposal designed to end the standoff.

"This very well may be the solution the region has been waiting for, and we have been working for," a senior White House official said as Bush spent Sunday at his ranch in Crawford.

The official said it is critical for the Palestinian Authority and Arafat to embrace the plan quickly.

"We hope he won't miss this opportunity," the official said. "Arafat has said Israeli troops should withdraw and that he should be allowed to move about freely -- this plan meets his goals, and he should accept it."

U.S. and British officials have been discussing the initiative for days, the official said.

This official said the plan would not involve U.S. or British troops but would include "security experts." The official did not dispute the suggestion that the CIA likely would be involved in any arrangements should the Palestinians accept the plan.

U.S. and/or British monitors would oversee the jailing in the Palestinian territories of the six suspects -- five Palestinians accused of killing Israeli Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evi in October and another Palestinian whom Israel said is responsible for an attempt to smuggle 50 tons of arms the Israelis seized on a boat in the Red Sea in January, the official said.

The six are in the Palestinian Authority compound in Ramallah, and Israel has said its troops are there because it does not trust the Palestinians to detain and try them.

"In accepting this plan, the Israelis agreed to withdraw," the senior U.S. official said Sunday. "That is significant."

On Thursday, Israeli officials rejected the actions of a makeshift Palestinian court that sentenced four of the Palestinian militants convicted in Ze'evi's killing to prison terms ranging from one to 18 years.