[en] We investigate the role of six-quark compound states in the three-nucleon bound state. The coupling of nucleons to these states provides a new mechanism for the short-range nucleon-nucleon interaction. We provide an explicit derivation of the equations of motion in the three-nucleon system. Various aspects of the interaction are investigated in detail. The energy dependence of the interaction turns out to be weak. The predicted binding energy of the three-nucleon bound state is in the same range as obtained with conventional nucleon-nucleon potentials. Details of the binding mechanism reflect the off-shell behaviour of the interaction. We study the effect of our short-range interaction on the proton momentum distribution of ³He. (orig.)