The government is making ``major concessions on the eve of the visit of Dennis Ross,'' the US special envoy for the Middle East who is scheduled to arrive here next week after a four-month absence, it said yesterday.

Ross is coming to give a push to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process which has been bogged down over negotiations for a further Israeli pullback from the West Bank. A formula will be found that allows the Palestinian authority not to extradite to Israel those Palestinian militants wanted for anti-Israeli attacks who have taken refuge in the Palestinian territories, the television said.

The second Israeli concession involves dropping the demand for manpower reductions in the Palestinian police force and their arms. Israel has also changed its insistence that three per cent ofthe territory from which it would withdraw be designated a ``nature reserve.''