Netanyahu: Palestinian airport pact soon

Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were on the verge of completing long-waited agreements on opening a Palestinian airport and a joint industrial zone in the Gaza Strip.

But he offered no hope for a quick solution to the larger disputes blocking the peace process: Jewish settlement expansion in disputed areas and Israel's failure to honor US-brokered agreements to remove its troops from more of the West Bank.

Speaking to foreign reporters ahead of planned visits to Britain and the United States, Netanyahu sought to counter statements by Palestinian leaders that a round of talks between two sides in Washington, last week had been a waste of time.

"The talks were, by and large, from the reports I got, actually more successful than meets the eye," Netanyahu said.

He referred to work in technical committees trying to implement steps to expand Palestinian autonomy which Israel was obliged to carry out under interim peace agreements.

"There was progress made in just about all of the committees and two of the agreements are virtually ready for completion, on the airport and the industrial park," Netanyahu said.

"We are very close to signing them. It depends on a desire from the Palestinian side to finish them," he said.

Palestinian negotiators immediately rejected Netanyahu's assessment as designed to place the blame for the stalemate on their side.

"We reached no agreement on the airport up until now and the differences are still varied on all issues," said Fayez Zaidan, head of the Palestinian airport team.