PALESTINIANS REJECT ISRAELI LAND OFFER THE NEW YORK TIMES.

The Palestinians on Sunday rejected Israel's decision to withdraw from 9 percent more of occupied territories, adding an unexpected new crisis to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's troubles.

After a three-hour meeting of Foreign Minister David Levy and other Israeli officials at which details of the pullback were supposed to have been worked out, the Palestinian negotiator, Mohammed Dahlan, declared that the territory to be turned over was insufficient.

``We totally rejected their percentage,'' he said tersely. ``We informed them that this was not acceptable.''

Levy reiterated Israel's position, supported by the United States, that the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords left it to Israel alone to decide on the extent of the pullback, and he indicated that the matter was not closed.

``They are going back to their chairman,'' Levy said, referring to Yasser Arafat. ``They must consult among themselves and give us an answer.''

The rebuff came as a surprise to Israel. While the Palestinians had been expected to denounce publicly the scope of the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the fact that Israel made the decision unilaterally, no one had expected that they might actually reject it.

If Arafat maintains this stance, it is not clear what will happen. Though Israel could presumably pull back on its own, the status of the areas they left would remain uncertain. Israeli television said Arafat was considering taking control of the land while refusing to recognize it as the required pullback.

The territorial dispute between the Palestinians and Israelis focused on a clause of the peace accords requiring Israel to follow up the initial transfers of the Gaza Strip and major West Bank towns to Palestinian control with three additional troop withdrawals even before a final settlement was reached. The agreement did not specify the size or the mechanics of the pullback, and Israel and the United States agreed that those were for Israel to decide alone.