EU wants Israel to send "strong signal" on peace from summit

THE Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, last night made it plain that the EU sees the onus for the restoration of the Middle East peace process as lying firmly with Israel. The latter, the Tanaiste said, had to send from Washington today a "strong signal that it wants to implement the peace process on the basis of the Oslo accords".

Following a working dinner here with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Yasser Arafat, Mr Spring also made public EU unease at being left out of the Washington peace talks today. Given the EU's financial and trade contribution to the region, and its contribution to the Olso process, the talks today "would be far more complete" with the EU, he said.

Mr Arafat told a press conference early this morning that he was not going to Washington with any preconditions. He simply wanted the peace accords reached with Israel implemented.

The Oslo agreement, he said had been ratified by the Knesset as well as the Palestinian legislature. "I am not asking for the moon, but what was agreed upon to be fulfilled."

Mr Arafat paid fullsome tribute to the EU aid contributions to the Palestinians - the largest of donors, he said, the Union had also alone met some 98 per cent of its pledged contributions.

Joe Carroll adds from Washington: After a period of confusion over attendance at the here the White House announced it would go ahead as planned today and tomorrow.

President Clinton turned down a request from the Mr Arafat for a postponement until next Sunday when Mr Clinton is due to take part in the first presidential campaign debate against Mr Bob Dole.

The White House spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry, confirmed that President Mubarak of Egypt would not be taking part. President Clinton had invited him along with Mr Arafat Mr Netanyahu and King Hussein.

Instead, President Mubarak is sending his foreign minister, Mr Amr Moussa.

Mr Clinton plans to meet both leaders bilaterally and then to take part in a "plenary session".

Mr Dole is said to be "deeply concerned" about the situation in the Middle East. He had discussions yesterday with his senior foreign policy advisers. Later Mrs Jeane Kirkpatrick, a US ambassador to the UN under President Reagan, said that "the administration's foreign policy is in a serious state of disarray with one failure after another."

David Horovitz adds from Jerusalem: The Israeli army has been issued with new orders to use massive firepower to suppress any new explosion of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Field commanders have been told by their superiors that a failure of peace efforts at this week's Washington summit would be likely to unleash a new round of conflict, and that they were to use all the weapons at their disposal - including the tanks now deployed outside Palestinian cities - to bring it to a swift end.

If there was a resumption of violence, Israel's Defence Minister, Mr Yitzhak Mordechai, said yesterday, "whoever starts it will be sorry." A military source put it more bluntly: "We'll decimate them," he said.

Although more than 50 Palestinians were killed in last week's clashes, the Israeli government has stated that the army acted with restraint in confronting Palestinian protesters. Under the new orders, troops have been told to open fire even on Palestinian stone throwers who come within 300 yards of their positions, because of a fear that Palestinian gunmen might shoot at them from within the ranks of the stone throwers.

Israel television also reported last night that military intelligence has changed its assessment about the likelihood of a new all out Middle East war within the next two years from "not expected" to a certain likelihood".