Officials: Palestinians to give up demand for refugees' return

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The Palestinian Authority has retreated from the language calling for the right of return for refugees -- one of the most contentious issues holding up a Middle East peace deal -- and is making other major concessions on peace with Israel in a two-page document sent to the United States, Palestinian officials said Wednesday.

These Palestinian Authority officials said the document, given to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, includes concessions on a number of key issues that caused previous peace efforts to fail.

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U.S. officials confirmed there was a revised Palestinian position on the right of return issue -- what one official said "could be significant if we can get the parties back to negotiations."

The U.S. officials said the Palestinian position was relayed directly to Powell by Nabil Sha'ath, a senior Palestinian negotiator, who has been in Washington this week. Sha'ath also talked Tuesday with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in a rare White House meeting for a senior Palestinian official.

Appearing on CNN late Wednesday, Sha'ath was guarded in his answers as to what he presented Powell.

"We (the Palestinian Authority) have agreed to the Arab peace proposal, which is based on the Saudi initiative, which calls for a just solution of the refugee problem agreed to on the basis of Resolution 194 of the General Assembly," he said.

However, the Palestinian officials who asked not to be identified said they have retreated from the demand for right of return for refugees who fled or were removed from land that became Israel in 1948. Instead, they said, they are calling for a "just and agreed" solution to that problem.

Israel has always rejected the demand for the right of return of refugees. If all the Palestinian refugees and their descendants returned, the Israelis have said, there would be so many Palestinians living in Israel that the nation would change from a Jewish state to a Palestinian state.

On other issues, the Palestinians said they are no longer calling for a formal military in any future Palestinian state, just a state with "limited arms."

And on the issue of territory, they are calling for a return to the 1967 borders with minor agreed modifications. They reiterate their claim to historically Arab East Jerusalem as a capital, with West Jerusalem as the capital for Israel.

A Palestinian official told CNN the concessions represent a major breakthrough since the last round of talks, which were held at Taba in Egypt after failed talks at Camp David.