(AFP, NAGO) - Group of Eight leaders slapped US President Bill Clinton on the back and issued a joint statement Friday supporting the back-from-the-dead Middle East peace talks.
"We welcome their courageous decision to continue negotiations and confirm our support for their endeavours," said the statement after a working dinner on the subtropical, southern Japanese island of Okinawa.
Clinton arrived here exhausted from mediating in the Camp David negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright temporarily took over Clinton's mediating role in the Middle East talks, declared dead on Thursday but unexpectedly revived within hours.
Clinton stayed in touch from Japan.
"All I can tell you is that they are still talking and, consistent with our rules, I am still not talking. But I am hopeful," Clinton told reporters, referring to the news blackout on the talks, before a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The G8 leaders fell over each other to congratulate the US leader, whose term ends in January.
"At the end of his term, to take on such a difficult issue when the chances of sucess are necessarily limited demanded courage on his part," Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien told a news conference.
French President Jacques Chirac called on both sides to make concessions for peace.
Clinton "has put all his weight, all his credit on the line to push things towards a more peaceful path," Chirac told a press conference.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori spoke of "brave Clinton" in earlier discussions among the Group of Seven richest nations, which excluded Russia, according to a Japanese source.
Later at dinner Mori said he felt like travelling to Camp David with other G8 leaders to back the effort, according to a Japanese government official. Clinton welcomed the message of support.
Clinton may depart the G8 summit early to rejoin the Camp David talks, said White House spokesman Joe Lockhart.
"We're doing a little bit of juggling on the schedule to move some things up so that, if we needed to get back and get some work done on Sunday at Camp David, we'd be in a position to," he said.
In their statement, G8 leaders said there was a real chance for peace.
"In the light of the trilateral summit meeting on a peace between Israel and the Middle East, we applaud the intensive efforts by ... Arafat and Prime Minister Barak, with the facilitation of President Clinton, to reach agreement on all permanent status issues."
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
