Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams continued their final-status talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah on January 10, with the Palestinian refugee issue on top of the agenda.

Palestinian chief negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo told reporters before the session that the Palestinian side is ready to discuss with the Israeli team the ways to address the rights of Palestinianrefugees to return to their homeland under the signed agreements.

According to figures issued by the Palestinian side, there are over 3 million Palestinian refugees now living in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and other countries of the world.

They have been divided into two categories, namely those who were forced to leave Israel during the 1948 War and others who leftPalestine to take refuge in other places during the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel has said that it will never allow those refugees who leftIsrael during the 1948 War to return to Israel.

Israel also said that it may consider compensating those refugees for their property losses, or seeking international funds to help solve their financial problems.

For those refugees who left Palestine during the 1967 Middle East war, Israel will only allow them gradually to return to the Palestinian controled areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian side insists that all the Palestinian refugees must be allow to return to their homeland and those who left Israeldo have the "rights" to return to their homes inside Israel.

Palestinian refugee problem is of the key issues pending solutions during the final-status talks which started last September.

The two sides have to reach a framework agreement on other issues such as borders, water, Jewish settlement and the final status of Jerusalem by mid-February under the Sharm el Sheikh peacedeal signed last September. The two sides also set a target date toreach a final peace treaty by September this year.