Foreign ministers at the Middle East summit held two working meetings in Sharm el-Sheikh Monday without agreement on a document aimed at halting violence, Israeli officials said.
Alon Pinkas, a senior Israeli foreign ministry official, gave a bleak assessment of the prospects of success at the summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
"The current situation is that there is no agreement on any of the key issues," he told AFP. "There is no agreement on the commission of inquiry and on the Palestinian demand to withdraw Israeli forces."
"The meetings of the foreign ministers broke off twice because there was no basis for an agreement," said Pinkas, adding that Israel was insisting first on the re-arrest of Islamic militants freed by the Palestinians.
White House spokesman P.J. Crowley said the situation was being assessed.
"They are assessing where they are. I would not say they have finished their work," he said after the latest meeting of the foreign ministers of the United States, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt.
US President Bill Clinton, meanwhile, shuttled between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who have yet to hold direct talks at the summit.
An official in the Israeli premier's office said "the difficulties stem from the fact the Palestinians are demanding that Israel take steps on the ground before a cessation of violence".
An Israeli minister, meanwhile, said agreement on the wording of the document was proving elusive.
"There was a lot of sensitivity around. There is sensitivity about every single word, due to a lack of trust," Israel's Transport and Tourism Minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak said.
"Some progress is being made, but there is a very serious argument about the wording of the document," he said.
A senior US official, asking not to be named, characterized the extensive meetings as tough.
"They are in there and they are working on a piece of paper. It's tough going, but it always is when these guys get together."
Asked whether the document the ministers were working on was a draft of a joint statement that the leaders could sign or adopt at the end of the summit, he said: "It appears so."
"They are discussing exactly the same issues that were discussed by the leaders but in more detail." – SHARM EL-SHEIKH (AFP)
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