Attorney Yitzhak Molcho, Israel's envoy in negotiations with the Palestinians, met with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Jordan on Saturday night to continue another round of exploratory policy talks, as part of an effort to renew the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. This is the fourth time these representatives have met in the last two weeks, and so far no breakthroughs have been made for renewing negotiations.

One of the Palestinian requests submitted during the meeting was the release of 20 prisoners, among them Speaker of the Palestinian Parliament and prominent Hamas leader Aziz Duwaik, detained most recently on Jan. 19 for what Israel called "involvement in terrorist attacks," as well as Marwan Barghouti, founder of Tanzim, the military wing of Fatah, and Ahmad Saadat, convicted of organizing the assassination of former Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001.

A political official in Jerusalem on Sunday night confirmed that the Palestinians had requested the prisoners' release, but said Israeli has no intention whatsoever of responding to the request.