"Those who initiated the Geneva agreement have perpetrated a crime of treason necessitating a death sentence or life imprisonement," Shaul Yahalom, who heads the radical National Religious Party (NRP), wrote in a letter to Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein, according to a copy obtained by AFP.

The symbolic Geneva peace plan was drawn up last week between Israeli left-wingers, including former justice minister Yossi Beilin, and leading Palestinians such as former information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.

Yahalom charged that the "Israelis behind this initiative have devised an agreement whose goal is, among other things, to deprive Israel of its sovereignty over the (Palestinian territories) and notably Jerusalem."

According to available details, the plan provides for shared sovereignty over disputed areas of the holy city of Jerusalem and gives the Palestinians 97.5 percent of the West Bank.

In exchange, Palestinian refugees would waive their right of return to areas now incorporated in the state of Israel as it was founded in 1948.

It is likely to be "signed" next month in Switzerland, possibly on November 4, the eighth anniversary of the assassination of former peacemaking Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist.

Meanwhile, a member of the Palestinian delegation claimed that purported texts of the plan published in the Israeli press had "nothing to do with the original."

Samir al-Rantissi told AFP in the West Bank city of Ramallah said the actual text is under Swiss government seal, and that its contents will be revealed a week before the signing.

Rantissi did not elaborate on how published details differed from what he said were the true contents of the document.

WAR.WIRE