HOPES for a speedy solution to the impasse in the Middle East peace process were dashed yesterday as a summit between the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Egyptian President, Mr Hosni Mubarak, failed to yield any tangible results.
Although the two men were in a jovial mood after nearly three hours of discussions, they said the summit represented only a first step towards achieving progress.
"We still need more meetings and consultations to take place until we reach a point where the Palestinians and Israel meet together and resume the peace process," Mr Mubarak told reporters in the Sinai resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh.
The Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, in Cairo to co-ordinate with the Egyptians before the summit, said on Monday night that Israel must stop building settlements before the peace process could be revived, something the Israelis have refused to do.
The Egyptians have made it clear that they support the Palestinian view but as a compromise Mr Mubarak suggested last week that Israel halt settlement building for six months, until final status talks are concluded.
When asked about reports that he had agreed to such a suspension, Mr Netanyahu said: "I am not going to address myself to all sorts of things that appear in the press. I prefer to spend the coming time on concrete discussions with private channels."
While the meeting was not expected to make any dramatic breakthroughs in the two-month stalemate between the Palestinans and Israelis, it was seen in Egypt and many other Arab states is pivotal in preventing a further deterioration in relations with Israel.
"There's no room at the present time for dithering or complicated formulae...
failure this time will be a problem because the alternative is unknown," said an editorial in yesterday's semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper. Not surprisingly, then, both leaders were anxious to put a positive spin on the meeting.
Mr Netanyahu said: "I think we re in the beginning of a process which I believe is an important process, but under no circumstances would I characterise what went on here today as a failure. I think that it was a positive beginning."
The continuation of diplomatic activity is good news for the Egyptians, who see themselves as unofficial sponsors of the peace process and have been looking for a way to expand their role after they were upstaged by King Hussein of Jordan last winter.
Asked whether Egypt could play an effective role when others have failed, Mr Mubarak answered: "Without the Egyptian role in 1977 you would not have sat here today and I would not have even been speaking with the prime minister of Israel... . Egypt started the peace process."
. A British junior foreign minister, Mr Derek Fatchett, yesterday became the first minister from a foreign government to see the site of Israel's controversial Har Homa housing project in east Jerusalem. The "illegal" project "is very clearly a road block on the way to peace," he said in Jerusalem.