Abstract submitted to the
         XXXth International Conference on High Energy Physics
                July 27 - August 2, 2000, Osaka, Japan
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    Properties of hadronic final states in diffractive deep inelastic ep
                                  scattering


                               ZEUS Collaboration





                                    Abstract


Characteristics of the hadronic final-state of diffractive DIS events,
ep --> epX, were studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an
integrated luminosity of 13.8 pb-1. The events were tagged by
identifying the diffractively scattered proton using the Leading
Proton Spectrometer.  The hadronic final-state X was studied using
energy flow, transverse energy flow, x_F, ''seagull'' distributions,
sphericity, thrust and thrust angle. Comparison with predictions from
Monte Carlo generators suggests that the data may be described by a
simple model in which the virtual photon fluctuates into q-qbar and
q-qbar-g states coupled to the proton via two-gluon exchange.