Arafat agrees to push for end to violence

WASHINGTON - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday promised United States President Bill Clinton that he would try to stop Israeli-Palestinian violence.

But the White House said that no peace breakthrough resulted from the two leaders' talks.

During two separate meetings at the White House, Clinton sought to clarify Arafat's questions about a peace deal that the US is trying to broker.

He planned to speak to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak by phone and then talk by phone again to Arafat in his attempt to negotiate a last-gasp peace deal before leaving office on January 20.

The White House said Clinton would decide how best to proceed after those calls to Barak and Arafat.

The main sticking points are over the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland and Palestinian sovereignty over the Jerusalem holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Arabs as al-Haram al-Sharif.

Arafat's team said the Palestinian leader planned to leave Washington today to attend an Arab League meeting in Cairo on the latest American peace proposal.

Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdainah said: "During the meeting it was agreed that contacts between Presidents Arafat and Clinton will continue. We will wait to see the results of the American efforts within 24 hours."

Another Palestinian official said there was no US pressure on the Palestinians to give their response immediately to the US "parameters" of the possible deal.

White House spokesman Jake Siewert said Clinton called the meetings with Arafat productive and useful, particularly in persuading Arafat to renew attempts to crack down on violence that had bedevilled the peace negotiations.

Siewert said Arafat told Clinton that he was "prepared to immediately resume co-operation on terrorism, to intensify efforts to stop the shootings, and to arrest those responsible for the violence."

The urgency of finding a solution was underscored by fresh violence in the region.

A Palestinian farmer was killed near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and two Israelis were wounded, one severely, at a roadside ambush just before the White House meeting began.

- REUTERS

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