Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami ended a Wednesday night meeting in Cairo, hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak without announcing any breakthrough in efforts to end violence and revive a moribund peace process, reported AFP.
"They agreed they should continue the negotiations," Israeli embassy spokesperson, Ayellet Yehiav, said following the two-hour meeting, without disclosing the contents of the talks.
Asked if the two sides had decided where and when the negotiations would resume, Yehiav replied: "That wasn't announced."
Meanwhile, Egyptian television cited an unidentified Palestinian official as saying the talks had ended without making "any progress," said AFP.
Israeli government sources in Jerusalem had earlier Wednesday played down chances of a breakthrough here, as US President Bill Clinton prepared to leave office in three days after having offered last-ditch peace proposals in December.
In Jerusalem, an Israeli foreign ministry source had said the meeting "was initiated by President Mubarak" to see where the two sides agree and disagree, but he "did not expect anything dramatic to happen."
Mubarak participated for part of the time, but Yehiav could not say how long he spent with Arafat and Ben Ami, according to the agency.
"In our view, to move forward, we have to see a drastic change in the field," the Israeli source said, on condition he not be identified.
Ben Ami held out the possibility earlier of positive developments.
"I believe the best we can do now is to address the reservations of the two parties and, if this is done on the basis of (Clinton's) parameters, I think we run a fair chance to produce something positive," he said.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, who took part in the talks, said the most important development was that there was "serious discussion about the issues which he (Ben Ami) knows that the Arab objections are based on."
However, Moussa warned "if Israel continues with its current position, this will not lead to results, because the Arabs and the Palestinians believe (what is offered) is insufficient."
Ben Ami said the two sides were pursuing simultaneous talks on security and political issues, adding there were increased efforts to reduce or eliminate the violence.
Ben Ami's meeting with Arafat, reported Haaretz, came on the heels of a serious breach between Israel and the international fact-finding committee set up at Arafat's request to investigate the violence in the territories.
Israel is now seriously considering severing all relations with committee, after its technical staff failed to coordinate a visit to al-Haram al-Sharif (known to Israeli as Temple Mount).
The team, said Haaretz, visited the area on Saturday without even informing Israel, and
no Israeli official was present. The tour was conducted entirely by the Palestinian Waqf.
The Israeli foreign ministry considered a number of possible responses Wednesday, and a government source said that Israel's liaison to the committee recommended severing relations with the committee entirely.
Other ideas discussed included asking the team to leave Israel and freezing the committee's work until after the elections, said the paper.
The full committee is due to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority next week.
In the Palestinian grounds, Israel closed a main road in the Gaza Strip Wednesday after an armed clash there with Palestinians, reported the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Two Palestinians and an Israeli officer were slightly wounded in the clashes there and in the West Bank.
Separately, a Lebanese boy was hurt by Israeli shelling from the disputed Shabaa Farms border area, Lebanese security forces were quoted by AFP as saying.
Israel shut the Gaza Strip's main north-south roadway with tanks and barricades after a gunfight with Palestinian civilians near the southern Jewish settlement bloc of Gush Katif, a Palestinian security official told AFP.
No one was hurt in the exchange, he said.
The road had been sealed off after the killing of a Jewish settler from Gush Katif Sunday night and then reopened, after a Tuesday night meeting between Palestinian and Israeli security officials.
Meanwhile, at the Karni crossing into Israel, an Israeli shell exploded, injuring a Palestinian garbage man in the face with shrapnel, hospital sources said.
Employed by the Gaza City municipality, the 48-year-old man had been driving his truck close to the garbage dump near Karni crossing when the shell exploded, they said.
He was listed in stable condition, said the Post.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell pledged at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that the incoming administration will also "seek a lasting Middle East peace, based on unshakable support for the security of Israel, the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people, our friendships in the Arab world, and a hard-headed recognition that the parties themselves must make the peace -- Albawaba.com
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