A top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Thursday there were no plans for a three-way summit with the United States and Israel to end the past seven weeks of deadly violence.
Asked about a possible trilateral summit, Nabil Abu Rudeina said: "There are no arrangements for such a meetings, it was not suggested in Washington nor today (Thursday)."
Clinton and Arafat last met in Washington on November 9.
Abu Rudeina was speaking to journalists after a meeting between Arafat and US President Bill Clinton's Middle East envoy Dennis Ross.
"It is not possible now to speak of any talk of any meetings with the Israeli side," Abu Rudeina said.
Arafat said he hoped for a resumption of peace negotiations with Israel before Clinton leaves office in January.
Asked if there was a chance of going back to the negotiating table before January, he told reporters: "We are hoping so.
"We have not to forget that President Clinton is insisting to achieve something before his departure," Arafat said.
Ross vowed that the United States would do all it could to restore the peace process, left in tatters by seven weeks of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has claimed the lives of more than 230 people -- GAZA CITY (AFP)
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