JERUSALEM - Israel is prepared to give the Palestinians part of Jerusalem and all of the strategic Jordan Valley, according to an American document summing up the negotiations so far, Israel television reported Thursday.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office dismissed the report as ''baseless speculation.'' Larry Schwartz, the spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, said he has seen the paper, but ''it is not an official American government document.''
The television report said Israeli negotiators have told the Palestinians that they are prepared to grant the Palestinians sovereignty over the Jordan River, the bridges over the river between the West Bank and Jordan and the Jordan Valley.
An international force with a large Israeli military contingent would oversee the bridges, and the Palestinians would lease the Jordan Valley back to Israel, according to the document.
The report quoted the document as saying negotiators were making progress in persuading Barak that a temporary solution over Jerusalem would be unsatisfactory, and that Israel should grant the Palestinians sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods there.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams are trying to hammer out a framework for a peace treaty, toward a September target date for completing the treaty.
The points in the document go beyond the concessions Barak has said he is willing to make. He has said that the Jordan River must be Israel's security boundary.
However, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said this week that Israel must be prepared to give up much of the Jordan Valley.
Barak insists that Jerusalem would remain united under Israeli sovereignty. The Palestinians want to set up a state with the Arab section of Jerusalem as its capital.
An American official, insisting on anonymity, said the document appeared to be a memorandum of remarks made at a meeting, but it was unclear who made them. He said State Department Middle East mediator Dennis Ross, who arrived in Israel late Thursday for talks with Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, did not know about the document.
The official said the document was being circulated by Israeli opponents of concessions to the Palestinians.
The TV report said the document was handed to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the Shas party, just before his decision Thursday to cancel his party's resignation from Barak's government, an apparent attempt to persuade Shas to oppose Barak's peace moves. Shas is hesitant about concessions to the Palestinians.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is due here next week to explore the possibility of a three way summit meeting in Washington with Barak, Arafat and President Clinton to wrap up the framework agreement.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Israel must agree to hand over all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Arab section of Jerusalem. ''Without this, I don't think we can have peace,'' he told The Associated Press.
Speaking in Jerusalem Thursday, Barak repeated his view that both sides must make painful concessions for peace. ''The moment of truth is upon us,'' he told Australian Jewish fundraisers.
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