Beginning tomorrow, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are to meet on a daily basis to try to restore momentum to the peace process, Israel's Foreign Minister, Mr David Levy, said yesterday on his return from a week of UShosted negotiations.
The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, also plans separate meetings in Europe in the next few days with both the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat.
However, Mr Netanyahu signalled yesterday that he was not about to adopt the US-Palestinian demand for at least a temporary freeze in settlement building, regarded by the US as crucial to restarting the peace process.
On Thursday, it emerged that the government had approved the construction of almost 400 homes at the West Bank settlement of Alfei Menashe, just across the border from Israel and south of the Palestinian city of Kalkilya. And in a speech yesterday, the prime minister declared that the Oslo peace accords did not bar building at settlements anywhere in the West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu's uncompromising attitude to the Palestinians has also been underlined by new reports that he recently endorsed a suggestion by his Infrastructure Minister, Gen Ariel Sharon, to use Apache attack helicopters to fire on designated locations inside Arafat-controlled territory. Since Israeli army simulations have demonstrated the potential for considerable loss of life in a conventional military response to attacks by Islamic militants inside Israel, Mr Sharon is said to have called instead for the use of helicopters, to fire missiles at specific targets.
Although the prime minister approved the idea, it has reportedly been abandoned in the light of vehement objections from the Israeli army chief of staff, Gen Amnan Shahak, and the head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, Gen Ami Ayalon, who argued that it could lead to all-out war between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
In Tel Aviv this evening, tens of thousands of Israelis are expected to attend a "gathering" marking the second anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Although the organisers, including Mr Rabin's family, have asked participants not to bring political banners or to turn the event into an anti-government demonstration, it is unlikely to draw many of Mr Netanyahu's supporters.
In the past few days, the prime minister has been doing his best to counter the resurgence of claims that he was a prime instigator of the incitement that led to the assassination, and has capitalised on a growing controversy concerning Mr Avishai Raviv, a right-wing extremist and friend of the assassin, Yigal Amir, who was reportedly working as a Shin Bet informer. Some reports claim Mr Raviv was an agent provocateur, who encouraged Amir to carry out the killing.
Mr Netanyahu has said he remembers Mr Raviv deliberately "provoking" the crowds at rightwing rallies prior to the killing.