Villars, Switzerland -- Arab and Israeli teenagers attending the first-ever Middle East Youth Summit adopted a declaration of peace May 7 which presents their solutions to some of the most intractable issues in the Mideast conflict.

The "Charter of Villars," negotiated in this Swiss alpine village, includes proposals to resolve the difficult "final status" issues that the actual negotiators have not even begun to discuss.

"The younger generation of the region has grown up in the shadow of this horrible conflict and has seen little besides the ravages of war and the brutality of violence," the Preamble states. "We desire the right to co-exist side by side within a true, secure, permanent peace."

The Charter was negotiated during intensive sessions at the May 1-7 summit which was sponsored by Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical and health products company. The young negotiators are all between the ages of 15 and 20 and all are graduates of the Seeds of Peace coexistence camp in Maine. They include Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians and Americans.

It calls for the birth of a Palestinian state and for the definitive rejection by the Palestinian leadership of all references to the destruction of the state of Israel.

The Charter proposes that the future Palestinian state have only an internal security force and not be allowed to deploy tanks or missiles, or to have an air force. Israel would guarantee the external security of the Palestinian state and but would have the right to use Palestinian airspace in self-defense.

It calls on the state of Israel to recognize the Palestinian national right to establish a Palestinian capital within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, but makes that right conditional on "the elimination of the infrastructure of terrorism."

"This is an agreement of hard and difficult compromises, we had very hard moments, but we did reach an agreement. I would like you to judge this agreement by what is written in it and not by slogans. Please just listen to it and hear it like it is," said Shai, an Israeli introducing the text on Jerusalem which was negotiated by a committee of seven Jerusalemites (four Israelis and three Palestinians) two Jordanians, two Egyptians and an American.

Clad in identical green tee shirts emblazoned with the Seeds of Peace logo, the youths worked through the last night, huddled around conference tables at the Eurohotel in Villars to hammer out the details of the text. Even as the glistening peaks of the Alps beckoned through the windows on the final day before the deadline, the young negotiators passed up the opportunity for a boat ride on Lake Geneva to make certain all outstanding issues had been thoroughly addressed.

John Wallach, the founder of Seeds of Peace, said the organization is in touch with the region's leaders to ask them to receive the Charter of Villars from a delegation of the teenagers.

What you have done here ... is to draw the road map for the evolution of a peaceful democratic Palestinian state that will coexist in your lifetimes with the state of Israel," Wallach said announcing the results of the vote.

"You have done the impossible," he said. "Your leaders have not even begun to address these issues, and you have come up with some incredible new ideas."

As with official peace accords, the Charter of Villars was negotiated by several committees, each of which focused on a "basket" of issues such as refugees, Jerusalem, security and economic concerns, and land issues.

Throughout the process, the young people benefited from expert coaching. Ambassador Alfred A. Atherton, who was U.S. Ambassador at Large for Middle East Peace in the lead-up to the Camp David accords, acted as a historical reference and provided guidance in the techniques of political negotiating.

"My principal message has been that it is terribly important to open your mind to what the other side is saying," said Atherton, who also served as Ambassador to Egypt from 1979 until the end of 1983. "Too often when we are in a debate or negotiation we tend not to be really listening to what the other side is saying but thinking of what we are going to say next."

Asked to compare the young people with actual negotiators, Atherton said they were among the best he had seen and he was tremendously impressed with the amount of energy, emotion and optimism they brought to the task of peacemaking.

Prior to the final round of voting, American participant Alex told his friends to vote their consciences while remembering: "Our place of belonging is each other. We are all refugees of the past and settlers of the future."