Cairo, Egypt ? Palestinians failed to agree on a truce offer to Israel on Sunday after three days of talks, setting back the Palestinian prime minister’s hopes for a halt in violence to jump-start the stalled U.S.-backed “road map” peace plan.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have carried out most suicide attacks against Israel, resisted intense pressure from Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and the top Egyptian mediator and refused a full cease-fire.

The two groups would agree only to a limited truce, ending attacks on civilians in Israel but not on Jewish settlers or Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel said it would accept only a comprehensive halt. “There’s no half-way cease-fire,” said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He said Israel was willing to stop shooting if there was a total Palestinian truce.

An official from Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian delegates said a further meeting was planned but offered no date.

Egypt had called together the Palestinian factions — more than a dozen, ranging from Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement to the Islamic groups and smaller leftist movements — in hopes of producing a halt to all attacks. Egyptian Intelligence Chief Gen. Omar Suleiman wanted to present the truce to Washington next week in a proposal that could win U.S. backing and put pressure on Israel.

But Qureia, who joined the talks Sunday in the hopes of bridging the gap, left the Egyptian capital, and several delegates acknowledged the talks produced no concrete results.

“There are disagreements about the nature of a cease-fire,” Maher Taher, a senior delegate for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told The Associated Press. “The factions have different positions on the issue.”

Even when Qureia and Suleiman lay on the pressure in a three-hour meeting Sunday, Hamas and Islamic Jihad refused to buckle in their rejection of the broad halt. The two groups have carried out most of the suicide bombings against Israel that have killed hundreds during more than three years of violence.

“Hamas is not ready to make a comprehensive cease-fire. This is final,” senior Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal said after talks ended Sunday.

The Palestinian suicide attacks have targeted buses, cafes, restaurants, shopping malls and outdoor markets inside Israeli territory.

Israel’s army has retaliated harshly — using tanks, warplanes and helicopters on Palestinians — and reoccupied most of the Palestinian cities in the West Bank and Gaza. Since the uprising started in September 2000, 2,562 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 898 on the Israeli side.