BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The 35-day siege around the Basilica of the Nativity appeared to be ending May 6 as negotiators closed in on a deal to clear the church of more than 120 people by sending some Palestinian gunmen into exile in Italy and others to the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

The rest of those trapped or held against their will in desperate conditions and under threat of violence would be free to go.

The standoff at the church on Manger Square, built on the spot where Jesus is believed to have been born, has brought international scorn to the Palestinian militants who took refuge there April 2 and to the Israeli troops who have kept Bethlehem locked down for a month.

President Bush, said to be moved by televised images of a part of the church complex in flames last week, pressured Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to resolve the conflict, the last high-profile standoff left from Israel's sweeping military advance across the West Bank.

Sharon arrived in Washington on May 5 for his fifth meeting with the president since becoming prime minister early last year.

Armed with documents that Israel says link Yasser Arafat directly to terrorism, Sharon is expected to press his case that the Palestinian leader should no longer be considered a potential partner for peace. Sharon and Bush were to meet May 7.

Early in the morning of May 6, Bethlehem region Gov. Muhammad Madani said the deal to end the siege at the Basilica of the Nativity stalled over how many gunmen would be deported to Italy and how many sent off to Palestinian-controlled land in the Gaza Strip.

From six to 15 gunmen, those that Israel considers most dangerous, would go Italy, sources said. Up to 40 could be sent to Gaza.

“Progress had been made but there's no deal yet. They're still talking,” a senior Israeli defense source said May 6.

The conflict began when Israeli soldiers stormed into Bethlehem as part of an air-and-land assault aimed at arresting Palestinian militants or terrorism suspects throughout the West Bank. The church became a sanctuary for innocent passers-by and clergy as well as for militant gunmen who fled inside only to be trapped by the Israeli army.

In the past couple of weeks, the makeup of the militants became more apparent from interviews with people who left the church. Among the Palestinians, reports said, were members of militant groups including Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to Arafat's Fatah movement.

Seven Palestinians died during the siege of the Basilica of the Nativity during a month when bullets rained on the basilica of the church and fires, possibly sparked by Israeli flares or explosives, broke out twice.

Bodies collected for days in one room in the Greek Orthodox monastery until their removal was arranged.

Last week, a group of peace activists scurried into the church in defiance of the Israeli blockade, further complicating efforts to end the siege.

Madani, the Bethlehem region governor who has been inside the church for 35 days, said May 5 that the end could not come soon enough.

“People are all very fatigued and stressed,” Madani said, speaking by cellular phone. “They are ready.”

The Basilica of the Nativity in Manger Square fell into snipers’ crosshairs April 2 when Israeli troops descended on Bethlehem as part of a wide and unprecedented attack on Palestinian-held territory in the West Bank.

Late that afternoon, militant gunmen slipped into the church's basilica where dozens of frightened passersby and clerics had hidden. The raid on Bethlehem quickly hardened into a bizarre and deadly standoff between Israeli military and Palestinian militants stuck with a captive, if not captured, audience.

“I went in there thinking: Two hours and I'll go home. I realized on the third day, it probably wasn't going to work out that way,” said 20-year-old Thaer Menasrah, who was shot by a sniper while sneaking out to collect ferns to be boiled as food.

“If I told you that I wasn't scared, that people aren't scared, I'd be lying,” said Menasrah, recovering from wounds to his thigh and arm in a hospital.

It is still unclear whether the trapped people are hostages or willing participants in the conflict.

Even some men who have been released and cleared by Israeli security are reluctant to tell what they saw in the church.

No one disputes that sniper fire was fierce. There was fear of an allout Israeli assault on the church compound, the focal point and tourist lifeline for Bethlehem. Food was scarce, and the Israelis turned off the electricity and water sporadically.

Most men claimed to have lost between 10 and 20 pounds, depending on how long they had been confined in the church where meals were reduced to a bowl of rice a day per person.

Only a few who have left the church would admit that hard-core militants were in the church. None would discuss if or how they defended themselves.

“I don't need to answer that question,” 28-year-old Jamal Yusef said abruptly when asked if he had fired any shots.

Yusef, who described himself as a longtime member of Arafat's Fatah movement, said he had spent nearly four years in prison during the first Palestinian intifada a decade ago.

Yusef contended that the people stayed in the church to show solidarity with the cause. Another young man, who initially said much the same, later changed his story. Some wanted to leave, he said, but were intimidated by the thought of breaking from the pack. He would not give his name.

All who entered the church apparently slipped through the tiny Door of Humility, an entrance that requires most adults to bow their heads as they enter.

There, perched on cold marble stones and ancient mosaics, the militants, some priests, monks and nuns — up to 200 people — waited and hoped.

On April 4, a church bell-ringer decided to walk home and was shot dead. Samir Abraham Salman, who was mildly retarded, apparently did not hear or understand the shouts of an Israeli soldier who ordered him to stop. The Israeli army later apologized.

On April 8, flames broke out in the medieval cloisters, a Franciscan section of the church, and a Palestinian man was shot dead in the upheaval. One police officer who escaped from the church told reporters that the 1,500-year-old church complex had been battered by bullets that cracked nearly every window.

Palestinians claim the fire broke out when Israelis hit the church with flares or an explosive. The dead man, Khaled Siam, a police officer, was shot as he was trying to douse the flames, they said. Israelis deny they caused the fire and said they shot at the man only because he had a weapon.

George Bandak, an insurance salesman who had run for safety in the church, described the Israelis as attacking from all sides that night.

“We didn't sleep at all,” Bandak said by cell phone, shortly after the battle. “At 3:30 a.m., they started shooting everywhere at the church. The walls. The windows. Some of the mosaics in the church were destroyed.”

Five days later, a third man, Hasman Nasser, was shot when he left the basilica. Snipers claimed two more Palestinians in the next two weeks, wounding two others.

“The situation inside was so dramatic,” said 57-year-old Yousef Rihan, released May 3 because he suffers from diabetes. “No one really expected all this to happen.”