President Clinton's hopes of brokering a Middle East deal before leaving office appeared to have been dashed yesterday when Arab foreign ministers rejected a key element of his proposed peace plan.
After meeting Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at the Cairo-based Arab League the ministers said the right of Palestinian refugees to return, which would be conceded in exchange for control of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem under Mr Clinton's proposals, was sacred and could not be bargained away.
Mr Arafat was hoping to get Arab support for his conditional acceptance of Mr Clinton's plan, but during the reportedly heated closed-door discussions the plan was denounced by a number of delegates, particularly the Syrians and Lebanese, both of whom host large numbers of Palestinian refugees within their borders.
"There is a commitment in the Arab, Islamic and Christian world to the rights of the Palestinians over Jerusalem and over refugees, particularly the right to return," the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mr Amr Moussa, told reporters after the meeting.
"I would like to point out that Lebanon has totally rejected the idea of resettling the Palestinian refugees (permanently) and insisted on the right of the Palestinians to return. We believe that this is a sacred right."
Mr Arafat had been expected to give a response to the US proposals immediately after the four-hour meeting but left without speaking to journalists.
Upon his return to Gaza later in the day he said he remained hopeful that a peace agreement could be reached by January 20th, when Mr Clinton leaves office.
"We hope for that according to the promise by President Clinton to make every possible effort before the period ends," he said.
The US plan envisages Palestinian control of the Haram al Sharif (the Temple Mount in Jerusalem), the third holiest site in Islam, while Israel retains sovereignty of the adjacent Wailing Wall, in addition to much of East Jerusalem. The Palestinians would also control Gaza as well as 95 per cent of the West Bank.
However, Israel would be allowed to keep many of its settlements, which critics say would break up Palestinian territory and make a state on the West Bank un-viable.
In exchange for control over the Temple Mount, the Palestinians would waive the right of the millions of refugees and their descendants - displaced by the creation of the Israeli state in 1948 and by Israel's further annexation of Palestinian territory in 1967 - to return to their former land.
Hardline Israeli prime ministerial candidate Gen Ariel Sharon said yesterday he respects the Palestinians for their three-month uprising against the Jewish state.
"I have respect for their struggle, even if I don't like this struggle, as it is useless and makes Jewish blood flow," he said. "But they'll know exactly the limits I won't cross and that with me one doesn't have negotiations under fire."
A poll released yesterday put Gen Sharon 28 percentage points ahead of Mr Barak, who is hoping to clinch a peace deal before the February 6 vote.