1 The crisis in Israeli-Palestinian relations deepened Thursday after their leaders failed to agree on how to expand Palestinian autonomy without endangering Israeli security.
2 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chief Yasser Arafat did not resolve any disputes during their 2 1/2-hour meeting Thursday at an Israel-PLO command post in northern Gaza.
3 Reflecting the tensions, the two did not hold a joint news conference. However, they agreed to meet again next Thursday.
4 Rabin told Arafat he must rein in Islamic militants before Israel will talk about expanding Palestinian self-rule to the West Bank. Fifty-five Israelis have been killed by Palestinian militants since October in a surge of suicide bombings.
5 Rabin also refused Arafat's demand that Israel lift a 19-day closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip imposed after a bombing attack last month by Islamic militants that killed 21 Israelis.
6 A tense Arafat, speaking later at his Gaza City office, complained that Israel was turning the Palestinian areas into a giant holding cell.
7 'If there is an Israeli wish for political separation, then we welcome it. But we will not welcome that they lock us in Gaza and the West Bank and hold the keys to the big prison,' he said.
8 The Palestinians accused Rabin of using security concerns as an excuse not to honor an agreement to withdraw troops from the West Bank and permit Palestinian elections.
9 'Security guarantees should be given through the political process, and not through procrastination,' said Palestinian spokesman Yasser Abed-Rabbo.
10 Under the Israel-PLO autonomy accord, Israel troops should have pulled out of West Bank towns by July 1994, in advance of Palestinian general elections. Delays in implementing autonomy pushed back the election date, then Israelis had second thoughts following this fall's attacks by Palestinian militants.
11 Thursday's summit rehashed the arguments have bogged down the negotiations for months.
12 'If Rabin doesn't help Arafat in proving to the Palestinians that peace pays off, Arafat will not be able to gain control over the opponents of peace,' an editorial in the Israeli daily Maariv said Thursday.
13 'But if Arafat does not succeed in overcoming the terrorist organizations, Rabin will not be able to help him.'
14 Prior to the summit, Arafat ordered the arrests of dozens of militants and established a military court to try those suspected of attacking Israelis.
15 While the two leaders met, Palestinian police raided the Gaza City headquarters of Islamic Jihad, the radical group that carried out the latest bomb attack. Police also detained three leaders of the Muslim militant group Hamas.
16 But Rabin said Thursday that Arafat must do more, including disarming his opponents.
17 On a related issue, negotiator Yossi Sarid said Israel could not open the border yet because of warnings that Islamic militants planned attacks marking the Feb. 25 anniversary of the Hebron massacre of 29 Muslims by a Jewish settler.
18 If Arafat intensifies his crackdown on militants by next Thursday's meeting with Rabin, 'we will respond in kind,' Sarid told Israel TV.
19 The closure bars Palestinians from entering Israel, and keeps tens of thousands of Palestinians from their jobs. Wages earned in Israel are a mainstay of the Palestinian economy.

Reflecting the tensions , the two did not hold a joint news conference . However , they agreed to meet again next Thursday .
agreed
Does this mean they intend to come to an agreement soon?