In an interview published in the current edition of Newsweek, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the diplomatic process must be carried out in three stages: "The first should be a full cessation of terror. Then Israel will recognize a Palestinian state... without final borders. If relations develop, the third stage will be where final borders are decided upon." He defended the construction of the partition fence as a "means to stop terrorist infiltration into the center of Israel -- to make it harder to send suicide bombers into Israel," and said it was not a "political fence" or a "border between us and the Palestinians."