11.   PLO spokesman Marwan Kanafani said the prisoners issue was one of most important issues still unresolved in the negotiations.

12.   A committee comprised of ministers from both sides will meet Monday to look into the prisoner issue, the two said.

13.   Almost every Palestinian home has been touched by the prisoners issue.

14.   Bildt had threatened to exclude the former warring parties from the two-day conference which starts Friday in Brussels if the prisoner issue was not resolved.

15.   But he has said no party will attend unless they are in compliance with the peace agreement on the prisoner issue.

16.   But ETA and moderate Basque nationalist groups insist the government should act first on the prisoners issue to open the way for talks.

17.   But he has said no party will attend unless the factions are in compliance on the prisoner issue.

18.   But Pique also suggested that talks on the prisoner issue would follow if ETA convinced the government that it intended to give up violence for good.

19.   Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the prisoner issue had led to a crisis situation and he flew Monday to Washington to raise the issue with U.S. administration officials.

20.   Erekat said he told Dennis Ross that solving the prisoners issue was crucial to keeping peace.