Wye implementation starts in three weeks

Jerusalem - Israel will in three weeks' time begin implementing outstanding pledges made in the Wye River accord with the Palestinians, the Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, said in a television interview yesterday. Mr Barak said he had agreed on the new timetable in meetings last month with the Egyptian President, Mr Hosni Mubarak and the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat. - But he did not clear up a key dispute with the Palestinians over the final phase of the Wye accord's three-step land handover, which Mr Barak had sought to postpone by several months.