(by Aldo Baquis) (ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV - A temporary Palestinian state in the middle of the West Bank in a limited time, combined with serious international guarantees to the Palestinians that within two years at the most a definitive peace agreement can be reached with Israel. On that day their State will cover an area equivalent to the West Bank and Gaza before the 1967 Six-Day War. Daily newspaper Maariv reports that these are the central elements of a plan which is still being worked out, and which has been discussed privately between Head of State Shimon Peres and representatives from the United States, the PNA and the Arab world. Defence Minister Ehud Barak is in complete agreement with Peres, according to Maariv. Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is being kept informed, and is not against it. Opposition party Kadimas number two Shaul Mofaz presented a personal plan based on similar concepts ten days ago. He presented it to United States government officials yesterday, who reacted with keen interest said Mofaz. For his part, Netanyahu is about to announce a ten-month moratorium on building projects in the West Bank. But a mini-State in the West Bank, with a considerably problematic limb in Gaza (due to the deep and lasting bitterness between Fatah and Hamas) seems not to be exciting interest among the Palestinians. While Jerusalem multiplies its own trial balloon, twenty kilometres to the north in Ramallah, a profound sense of mistrust reigns. In an interview from prison with Reuters, al-Fatah chief Marwan Barghuti claims that talks with Israel will be considered a failure and that now is the time to resume the peoples battle against the settlements, against the security barriers and against the Jewification of Jerusalem. President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) asked rhetorically: if not even the president of the United States can manage to freeze the Israeli settlement-building, how can I? In a television interview Mahmoud Abbas said he was determined not to stand again as leader of the Palestinian National Authority. Nobody is replaceable if the Israelis seriously want to move forward with the peace process, let them speak with my successor as well he said, continuing his international itinerary from Egypt to Brazil. Demoralised tones now mark Abu Ala and Saeb Erekat, the best-known Palestinian negotiators. Meanwhile Premier Salam Fayad is concentrating on building the infrastructure of the Palestinian state regardless of any particular agreements with Israel. Despite the negative atmosphere, talks are going on behind the scenes for a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. A cautious optimism has been growing since yesterday. Israeli corporal Ghilad Shalit, who has been held in Gaza since June 2006, could soon be taken to el-Arish (in the Egyptian Sinai) to be examined by Israeli doctors. Palestinian newspaper al-Manar maintains that Israel will then release 450 Palestinian prisoners accused of serious attacks. Thanks to Hamas, says the newspaper, Barghuti will be released. Minister Benyamin Ben Eliezer (Labour) says that Barghuti could be the best successor to Mahmoud Abbas: he is a genuine leader who also enjoys the support of Hamas. He knows the difference between dreams and reality. I would like to do business with hard people like him. (ANSAmed).