WYE MILLS, Maryland (CNN) -- After nearly nine grueling days of Mideast peace talks, "an agreement has been reached between the two parties," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said early Friday. A White House ceremony was expected around midday.

U.S. President Bill Clinton left the Wye River Conference Center Friday after 21 hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and their tops aides.

Earlier Friday, Israeli sources and Palestinian officials involved in the talks told CNN that a verbal agreement had been reached on all outstanding issues.

Sources said the document was nearly written. The final agreement was still "several hours away," a senior adviser to Netanyahu told CNN.

Paving the way for final-status talks

Both Arafat and Netanyahu were meeting -- separately -- with their teams as the draft is being written.

The breakthrough deal, currently called An Agreement for the Implementation of the Interim Agreement, is designed to bring closure to all interim issues and allow final-status talks to begin.

The sensitive issues to be worked out in final talks include the status of Jerusalem and the borders for a possible Palestinian state. Those talks are scheduled to end on May 4, 1999, when the Oslo accords expire.

Interim agreement details

The agreement being drafted will include a concrete security plan designed to curb violence in the region -- violence from both Palestinian extremists and Jewish extremists.

Other issues in the deal include: