Warring sides test waters

JERUSALEM - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held late-night talks at the weekend aimed at resuming formal peace negotiations but demands on both sides cast a pall of uncertainty over the possibility of arranging a peace summit.

Israeli political sources said official talks could begin this week if the level of violence decreased, but Palestinians warned of little substantial progress without Israeli compromises.

Israeli negotiators Shlomo Ben-Ami and Gilead Sher met their Palestinian counterparts, Saeb Erekat and preventive security chief Mohammed Dahalan, at an undisclosed location after a day of relative calm in the West Bank and Gaza.

Erekat confirmed before the meeting that the sides were holding exploratory meetings to prepare for a possible US summit between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak but progress was needed.

"Talk about negotiations or a summit before Israel commits to end occupation is unjustified optimism and premature," he said.

Israeli officials close to the negotiations said Barak would be willing to go beyond West Bank territorial compromises offered at July's failed Camp David peace summit in return for Palestinian flexibility over refugees' right to return.

In an address to soldiers on Saturday, Barak said he and other ministers were striving to move forward with peace talks in order to prevent wider war.

"There is no other way. We have to move forward. It is forbidden to move back," Barak said, adding that negotiations would not come at "any price."

Erekat said that while Palestinians were holding contacts with Israel to prepare a peace summit, they would attend only if Israel agreed to withdraw from occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.

"We're aiming for a comprehensive package. We will not go for agreements in principle, or interim agreements. We're seeking a comprehensive agreement on all issues in accordance with United Nations Resolutions 242 and 338, which means withdrawal to 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem."

Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed them in a move not recognised internationally.

Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, a pioneer of 1993 interim peace measures, described the issuing of preconditions as wrong.

He said both sides needed to be creative if serious talks were to start before US President Bill Clinton leaves office on January 20 and is succeeded by Republican George W. Bush.

Officials in Barak's office said he would not compromise on Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem's Temple Mount, a site sacred to both Muslims and Jews, or plans to concentrate around 170,000 Jewish settlers in large West Bank settlements.

Barak's decision to seek re-election in a prime ministerial vote in February, after his Government lost its ability to function in the Knesset, has apparently given new impetus to peace efforts.

A group of centrist and left-wing Israeli lawmakers was due to meet Arafat in Gaza last night.

Clinton, in a weekend telephone conversation with Arafat, expressed concern at the ongoing violence but said he was encouraged by the meetings between their negotiators.

White House National Security spokesman P.J. Crowley said it was possible negotiators could meet in Washington in the next few days and that if progress were made, the talks could pave the way for a Barak-Arafat meeting.

No Israeli or Palestinian fatalities were reported at the weekend. A 70-year-old man died in the West Bank town of Jenin from wounds that hospital officials said had been received from Israeli fire the previous day when six other Palestinians died.

Thousands of Palestinian mourners chanting "Long live the gun" and "Death to Israel" buried their dead from last week's bloodshed.

- REUTERS

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