Tel Aviv - A 1929 accord between the Vatican and Fascist Italy granting 'special status' to several Rome churches could provide a model to resolve the dispute over Israel's control of Jerusalem, a former Israeli ambassador has suggested. Moshe Sasson, Israel's ambassador to Italy from 1973-77, described the Lateran Treaty signed by Benito Mussolini and the Vatican as "a historical precedent that is wonderfully suited to the issue of Jerusalem," in an editorial in Friday's edition of the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz.

Sasson argues that by seeking an arrangement similar to the Lateran Treaty, Israel would prevent the partitioning of Jerusalem while satisfying the followers of the world's main three monotheistic religions - Christianity, Islam and Judaism - who all consider the city holy.

The Lateran Treaty ended a dispute which began in 1871 when the then newly- constituted Kingdom of Italy took over Rome after centuries of Papal rule. In 1929 Italy granted a "special status under international guarantee" for five basilicas that belong to the Vatican, but which are situated outside the territory that demarcates the tiny state.

Sasson says Israel could declare unilaterally, by virtue of its sovereignity, that it is granting a special status to the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock Sanctuary on the Temple Mount, as well as to other places that are sacred to Judaism as well as those Christians cherish as holy.

Israel could grant "free passage to the holy places regardless of religion, gender or race," to anyone wanting to visit Temple Mount for example. Sasson argues that such a move would be welcomed by the international community ensuring that "Jerusalem would remain whole and not divided; each of the three montheistic religions would be soveriegn over the buildings that are sacred to it, would administer them and would be responsible for what happens inside them," he said.

Sasson admits that such a move would not necessarily win the approval of Arab governments who he says want to maintain the "supposedly 'religious aspect' of the Arab-Israeli conflict."

Still, a compromise solution could be achieved if Israel were to allow Arab governments to establish a small policing force to oversee sacred Islamic sites. This, Sasson argues, would help overcome the present problem whereby Israeli security forces responsible for law and order are seen to impart the "punishment of the other."

While the Lateran Treaty model might offer a solution to the dispute over the custodianship of religious sites, Sasson says Israel has another problem that needs tackling - Jerusalem's very large Arab population, which currently numbers 237,100.

The growth rate of the Arab population is currently double that of the city's Jewish community, a situation which will over the years result in the "capital of Israel" having mostly Arab inhabitants.

To remedy this situation, Sasson urges the Isralei government to implement policies that will "attract Israelis and Jewish immigrants to Jerusalem and to keep its Jewish inhabitants living there and prevent them from abandoning it."

Israel defines Jerusalem as its "eternal and undivided capital" a status not recognise by most nations who maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv. Palestinians say Arab East Jerusalem should be the capital of their future state.