JERUSALEM, July 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said on Sunday that there was no chance of reaching a conclusive peace agreement with the Palestinians unless Israel divided Jerusalem and ceded the West Bank city of Hebron.

    Speaking to Israel Radio, the Labor Party chairman also said the Gush Etzion settlement between Jerusalem and Hebron would not be returned to the Palestinians under any future peace accord.

    Labor has been Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's key political ally in his bid to implement the pullout from the Gaza Strip.

    During the Labor premiership of Ehud Barak in late 1990s, it wasreported that Barak had put out feelers to the Palestinians over possible ways to divide Jerusalem, the eastern half of which Palestinians envisage as the capital of a future independent state.

    But the Israeli government has seen Jerusalem as the "indivisible capital" of the Jewish state.

    Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War and later annexed it, a move not recognized by the international community. Enditem