Israel and Egypt on Monday (1 September) initialled the historic Sinai agreement, opening the door to peace between the two countries.

Under the agreement, Israel will make a limited troop withdrawal in exchange for a clear-cut commitment by Egypt not to start another war. It also suggested that Egypt would not support another Arab country if it launched an attack against Israel.

Israel will give up the Giddi and Mitla passes, the most strategic area of the Sinai desert which it captured in the 1967 war, as well as the Abu Rudeis oilfields, an important source of energy to Israel for the past eight years.

Egyptian troops will not move into the passes. They will form part of an enlarged buffer zone in which American civilians will man an electronic early warning system, to ensure both sides keep the agreement.

Israel has already started work on its new defence line, to replace the one it will evacuate by next February.

Chief Arab opponents of the near Israeli-Egyptian accord are expected to be the Palestinians, without a home since the establishment of Israel in 1948.

President Sadat is expected to confer in the next few days with Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.