41.   Before the pope left Rome, the Vatican signed an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization that guarantees Christian property and legal rights in a future Palestinian state.

42.   Bin Laden would not want a Palestinian state on the West Bank, because he could not abide a Jewish state alongside it.

43.   Blair said that, like Bush, he supports the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

44.   -- maybe the rise of an independent Palestinian state.

45.   A construction site in Abu Dis, straddling Jerusalem, is an apt metaphor for the promise, and failure, of a Palestinian state.

46.   A day rarely goes by without Yasser Arafat vowing to build a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

47.   A joint Syrian-Lebanese statement on Sunday called for the dismantling of Jewish settlements and the creation of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

48.   A Palestinian state would be forged through negotiation, Bush said, not terror.

49.   A possible scenario would include the declaration of a Palestinian state even before the terms of a final peace agreement are reached, US officials and diplomats say.

50.   A reporter suggested that it might be considered progress that Sharon would be willing to recognize a Palestinian state.