In this story:

• Pact trades land for security guarantees
• U.S. officials wary of Pollard clemency
• All-night talks led to final pact
• Hard-liners condemn deal
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After nine days of intense negotiations at a secluded Maryland resort, the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority have signed a deal designed to help bring peace to their lands half a world away.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed the interim peace accord in the East Room of the White House late Friday afternoon, as U.S. President Bill Clinton and Jordan's King Hussein looked on.

"This agreement is designed to rebuild trust and renew hope for peace between the parties. Now both sides must build on that hope (and) carry out their commitments," Clinton said. "Both reaffirmed their commitment to the path of peace, and for that, the world can be grateful."

"Today's a day when Israel and our entire region are more secure," Netanyahu said. "This has required sacrifice from both sides and reaching into what (Abraham) Lincoln called 'the better nature of mankind.'

"I am asking all people of good will, of honesty and candor ... to join us in support for this important step for a secure future, a future of peace," he said.

"This is an important and a happy day, a day of achievement that we will always remember with optimism and hope," Arafat said. "Our agreement ... underscores that the peace process is moving ahead.

"We will never go back. We will never leave the peace process, and we will never go back to violence and confrontation," he said.

All three leaders paid homage to King Hussein, who was undergoing cancer treatment in Minnesota when he came to Washington in an attempt to move the talks along.

"No matter where I would have been, if I had an ounce of strength, I would have done my utmost to be there," the king said. "This has been a shot in the arm for me -- what you have accomplished."

Pact trades land for security guarantees

The agreement, which U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright termed a "new chapter in the pursuit of permanent peace," calls for Israel to withdraw its troops from land in the West Bank, which it has occupied since the Six Day War in 1967. The land will be turned over to Palestinian control, giving the Palestinians hegemony over about 40 percent of the West Bank.

In return, the Palestinians agreed to a comprehensive security plan to protect Israel proper from terrorist attacks by Islamic militants. They also agreed to remove language in their national charter that called for the destruction of the Jewish state.

The United States agreed to provide aid to Israel to implement the security plan, as well as money for an economic development package for the Palestinians. Clinton will also travel to the Middle East to address a meeting of the Palestinian National Council at which its commitment to the peace process will be formally reaffirmed.

Pollard

The pact nearly unraveled earlier Friday over a peripheral issue that is sparking controversy in the United States -- the possible release of Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. citizen sentenced to life in prison for passing American military secrets to Israel.

The Israelis said Clinton had agreed to release Pollard to facilitate its deal with the Palestinians -- an interpretation which White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart later strongly denied.

"Any comments or suggestions President Clinton committed to the release or promised the release of Jonathan Pollard are false and inaccurate," Lockhart said.

With the Pollard issue threatening to derail the agreement, Clinton and Netanyahu met to resolve the impasse, which allowed the signing ceremony to go forward.

"I have agreed to review this matter seriously, at the prime minister's request. I have made no commitment as to the outcome," Clinton said at the signing ceremony.

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U.S. officials wary of Pollard clemency

Law enforcement and intelligence officials in the United States reacted with alarm at the prospect that Pollard's release was even being considered.

"No American citizen has ever been turned over to the country for whom he spied," said Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Pollard. "It's true, it's a terrible standard for security in our intelligence and military system."

Pollard, who was a civilian U.S. Naval intelligence analyst at the time he passed secrets to Israel, is being held at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina. Sentenced to life in prison, he has previously been denied clemency three times -- twice by Clinton and once by former President George Bush.

Sources tell CNN that it was newly appointed Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon who pressed hard for Pollard's release.

All-night talks led to final pact

Netanyahu, Clinton and Arafat stay up all night Thursday working out the final details of the plan

Clinton, Netanyahu and Arafat were up all night working out the final details of the plan. Had the pact not been signed by sundown Friday, the start of the Jewish Sabbath, there would have been another 24-hour delay in a process that had already gone five days beyond its initially scheduled conclusion.

After reaching a final agreement, the three leaders returned to the White House from the Wye River Conference Center in Maryland during the afternoon for the signing ceremony at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT.)

The interim agreement, which is being called the Wye Memorandum, clears the way for negotiations to begin on a final, comprehensive peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians as called for in the 1993 Oslo accords, which set up the current Middle East peace process. The deadline for a final agreement is May 1999.

Hard-liners condemn deal

In the Middle East, Israeli and Palestinian hard-liners were condemning the deal signed Friday

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Islamic group Hamas, called it a sellout. He said the CIA's involvement in guaranteeing Israel's security, which is part of the agreement, "cannot erase Hamas."

A militant group, Islamic Jihad, held a rally in Gaza during which they burned a coffin festooned with the words "Oslo peace" and also burned Israeli flags.

But Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian parliament, said she thought that predictions of internal Palestinian strife were "highly exaggerated."

	. . . . News: Wye River Memorandum Background: Mideast Timeline The West Bank in Brief Key Players Maps: Middle East Israel Land-for-peace deal Interactive: Message board

"Of course, public opinion is highly skeptical. People are not very pleased They are still waiting for the test of implementation. You're not going to see dancing in the streets," she said.

Jewish settler leader Aharon Domb said Netanyahu had negotiated an "agreement of surrender," and he warned of "the gravest consequences." Some hard-line political leaders were threatening to try to bring down Netanyahu's government.

But former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, whom Netanyahu ousted in the last Israeli election, called the agreement a "victory for the Oslo accord" and termed right-wing objections "protest without a plan."

"The right wing does not have another plan. They don't have an alternative," he said.

Correspondents Andrea Koppel, Wolf Blitzer, Walter Rodgers, David Ensor, and Jerrold Kessel contributed to this report.