US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday secured an agreement from Israel to open Gaza's borders, seeking to head off Palestinian warnings that the territory would become a giant prison.
After round-the-clock talks with officials from both sides, Rice announced a deal had been reached for the reopening of the main Rafah crossing from the Gaza Strip into Egypt in 10 days' time.
Flanked by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and former World Bank chief James Wolfensohn, who played a mediating role in the deal, Rice said the two sides had resolved outstanding issues.
"I am pleased to be able to announce today that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have concluded an agreement on movement and access," she told reporters.
The announcement came after Rice postponed her departure for a regional conference in Asia to throw her personal prestige into an effort to win a much-needed victory for the moribund Middle East peace process.
"It is a very, very important agreement. It has taken a long time to finalise," added Solana, with officials spending more than six months negotiating the framework of the agreement.
The Palestinian Authority welcomed the deal as an important step towards improving the life of the impoverished territory's 1.3 million residents.
The accord targeted November 25 for the opening of the Rafah terminal, one of the key issues left over after Israel's landmark withdrawal from Gaza in September.
It also provided for the continuous operation of Gaza crossing points such as Karni and Erez into Israel, and said Israel would permit the export of all agricultural products from the territory during the 2005 harvest season.
The Jewish state agreed to allow the passage of convoys to facilitate the movement of goods and people between Gaza and the West Bank, according to a text released by the State Department.
It said construction of a seaport could begin but discussions on the airport for Gaza would continue.
Rice cautioned the agreement was fragile, as are prospects for reigniting peace talks to end more than five years of violence that have left nearly 5,000 people dead.
"We have a long road ahead," she said. "We even have a long road ahead in the implementation of the agreements that were (reached) an hour ago. I don't want to underestimate the difficulties ahead."
On Tuesday, Rice met Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz as part of a final push for Israel to accept the proposed deal and held final talks with Palestinian civil affairs minister Mohammed Dahlan and finance minister Salam Fayad.
Text of an agreement was hammered out on a laptop. Rice and her team worked through the night, the secretary getting only two hours sleep.
The final wording of the text was not nailed down until 10:05 am (0805 GMT) just minutes before the briefing, a US official said.
Solana said the European Union was "ready and we have the plans prepared" to deploy EU monitors to the Rafah terminal. The Palestinian Authority appeared satisfied.
"The Palestinian Authority welcomes the agreement on the borders which will facilitate people's daily lives and their movement," chief spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
Gaza is one of the most densely populated territory's in the world and suffers often crippling levels of poverty.
The operation of the Rafah terminal, the only land crossing between Gaza and the rest of the world that bypasses Israel, had been a point of fierce contention since Israeli troops and settlers quit Gaza.
One of the major sticking points had been over real-time surveillance feeds from the terminal. Israel had demanded 24-7 surveillance footage, a requirement the Palestinians rejected as infringement on their sovereignty. The agreement instead routes the feed through a liaison office led by European monitors.
Wolfensohn warned last month that time was running short to resolve disagreements, putting the blame largely on Israel.
"The government of Israel, with its important security concerns, is loath to relinquish control, almost acting as though there has been no withdrawal (and) delaying making difficult decisions," he wrote.
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