Israeli and Palestinian ministers met today in their highest level encounter since Mr Ariel Sharon took office, amid a flurry of renewed contacts aimed at halting the escalating spiral of deadly violence in the region.
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Mr Ariel Sharon
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Foreign Minister Mr Shimon Peres held talks with Palestinian ministers Mr Nabil Shaath and Mr Saeb Erakat in Athens, calling for urgent security measures even as fresh fighting flared in the territories, with Israel saying it used mortar bombs against the Palestinians for the first time.
There is an "urgent immediate need for a security arrangement," Mr Peres said, adding that the two sides had agreed to begin security talks on today or tomorrow.
Mr Peres is on a four-nation tour of Europe aimed at promoting Israel's handling of the worsening conflict with the Palestinians.
Israel has vowed not to resume peace talks with the Palestinians until there is a halt to the six months of fighting that has claimed the lives of more than 460 people, most of them Palestinian.
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Mr Yasser Arafat
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Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat's number two Mr Mahmud Abbas said Palestinians were prepared to negotiate with the Sharon government and were awaiting a response from Israel as well as the United States and the Europeans to Egyptian-Jordanian peace proposals.
"These ideas represent a complete package including all the steps needed to reach a solution to all the security and political issues," he told reporters in the West Bank town of El-Bireh.
"The intifada is a response to Israeli provocation and aggression. It exists for various reasons, and if those reasons were removed, the intifada would be calmed," he said
Israeli radio reported US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell pushed for the security meeting in telephone conversations with Mr Sharon and Mr Arafat after Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip for the second time in less than a week.
Palestinian information minister Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo also said that a high-level delegation may visit Washington in the coming days for talks with US officials.
At least 60 Palestinians were hurt in attacks by Israeli gunships yesterday aimed largely at positions of Mr Arafat's elite Force 17 bodygard, drawing renewed Palestinian calls for international protection and warnings of a further escalation in violence.
AFP
