Shuneh (Jordan), June 23: After intense talks over the weekend, Israel and the Palestinians are making progress towards an agreement transferring security responsibility for the Gaza Strip, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said today. "The last two and a half weeks we have seen progress, we have seen intense discussions between the two sides," Powell told a news conference in this dead sea resort. "Ambassador (John) Wolf is in the region, ambassador (William) burns is in the region and will remain in the region for several more days.
"Very intense meetings have taken place -- they have taken place over the weekend, they are taking place here this afternoon.

"We are making progress with the security agreements. The Palestinian authority is hard at work trying to bring into place a cessation of violence on the part of those (Palestinian militant) organisations."
Powell said Washington was paying particular attention to restoring cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian security services. "We would hope that both sides would cooperate in identifying terrorists that might be intending to do harm in either direction, to share information, to share intelligence. Bureau Report