Barak and Clinton try to nut out peace

WASHINGTON - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak held talks with President Bill Clinton at the White House yesterday as they searched for a way to end a spiralling conflict with the Palestinians that has left more than 200 people dead.

Barak, facing a virtual collapse of the Middle East peace process, was consulting the Israeli Government's main supporter as his troops engaged with Palestinian demonstrators and gunmen in what Israel's Foreign Minister called a "mini-war."

There was little expectation of a breakthrough in the Barak talks. They followed a meeting between Clinton and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat last week that ended without any sign of progress towards a ceasefire and resumption of peace talks.

In Israel, troops shot and killed a teenager and wounded about 25 other Palestinians early yesterday as the Israeli Army reported at least 10 exchanges of gunfire in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian, wanted by Palestinian authorities for "collaborating" with Israel, was killed in the West Bank, a Palestinian security official said.

Israeli Army Radio said he was shot by gunmen who believed he helped Israel target Hussein Abayat, a militia commander in Arafat's Fatah faction who was killed in a helicopter attack near Bethlehem last week.

A Jewish settler shot a teenage Palestinian stone-thrower in the legs. Two roadside bombs exploded in Gaza, but no one was hurt.

At least 206 people, mostly Palestinians, have died in more than six weeks of violence that has shattered a peace process with just over two months left for Clinton to rescue it before leaving office on January 20.

The White House talks were held amid deep uncertainty about who will then lead the US mediating role, with the outcome of last week's presidential race still undecided.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Clinton's national security adviser Sandy Berger and Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami were among those taking part in the White House talks. Barak arrived in Washington after twice changing his flight plans in response to the hijacking of a Russian airliner to Israel, where it landed at a remote desert air base.

The diversion of a Dagestan Airlines Tupolev 154 on a flight to Moscow from the capital of the Russian region of Dagestan ended peacefully when the apparently deranged Dagestani hijacker was disarmed and all 58 passengers and crew members walked free.

The White House said the goals of the White House meeting were similar to those of the Arafat meeting. "We want to explore with the Prime Minister what needs to be done to affect the situation on the ground," said US National Security Council spokesman P. J. Crowley.

Meanwhile, Israel yesterday mourned the death of Leah Rabin, aged 72, wife of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who signed the 1993 Oslo peace accords with Arafat in Clinton's presence. She died of heart failure in hospital after a long struggle with lung cancer.

Her funeral will be on Thursday.

- REUTERS

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