JERUSALEM, Aug 7: Prime Minister Ehud Barak said on Friday that Israel would begin in three weeks to Implement long-stalled handovers of land to Palestinians promised in the Wye River accord, reports Reuters.

Barak's announcement, made in a television interview, meant Palestinians could get control of more West Bank land by early October, several weeks after implementation gets underway.

But it did not clear up a dispute with Palestinians over the final phase of the Wye accord's three-step land handover, which Barak had sought to postpone by several months.

Palestinians said they would reject modifications to the accord being sought by Barak and would not start negotiations on a final peace treaty until Israel made all of its promised West Bank redeployments.

Barak told Israel Television he had agreed in meetings last month with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat

to put tpe stalled agreement back into action starting in September.

"We will implement Wye. Wye has a timetable. I said a month ago that in seven weeks — in other words three weeks from today —- we will begin counting the days for implementation of Wye. Mubarak and I agreed to this then, Mubarak and Arafat agreed to it. That's how it will happen, exactly as planned." he said.

Last year's US-brokered Wye accord called for Israel to cede 13 per cent of the West Bank in three phases over 12 weeks in exchange for Palestinian security moves and other measures.

Barak, who took office last month pledging to breathe new life into a peace process that stalled under his right-wing predecessor Benjamin Natanyahu, has proposed folding the last stage of the land handover into talks on a permanent peace deal.

Palestinians said they had not been informed of a new timetable and would accept it only if all three redeployments

were made on schedule.

"We are still insisting on the immediate implementation of agreements without changing them and without combining interim issues with the negotiations." senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters.

A statement issued by the Palestinian cabinet after its weekly meeting on Friday said Palestinians would not enter "final status talks until the honest and complete implementation of interim agreements".

It said Palestinians still had the "natural right" to declare a Palestinian state unilaterally.

Netanyahu handed over two per Cent of the West Bank after signing the Wye accord in October but suspended It weeks later.

The deal calls for Israel to hand over five per cent of the land in the second phase and six per cent in the third phase. Aides have said Barak asked Arafat to agree to delay the third redeployment to February.