President Bill Clinton is due to meet in Washington Tuesday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to discuss the latest US peace proposals, and see if a breakthrough is possible before he leaves office on January 20.
In a 45-minute phone conversation Monday, Clinton and Arafat agreed that "in order to help reach a common understanding of the parameters the president has put forward, a meeting would be useful," White House spokesman P.J. Crowley told AFP.
Later Monday, Arafat flew out of Gaza on a Washington-bound plane, accompanied by senior Palestinian negotiators, Palestinian officials confirmed.
And in a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak Monday, Clinton told the Israeli leader of Arafat's planned visit to Washington, and also "talked about the on-going violence in the Middle East and the need to do everything possible to combat the violence," Crowley said.
Clinton, who leaves office on January 20, has made it clear he has assigned a high priority to the attempt to reach a breakthrough on the peace process before that date.
The proposals -- which the White House has insisted on describing as mere "parameters" for a final settlement of the Middle East conflict -- were presented by the US president to Erakat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami at a meeting at the White House on December 23.
They involve Israel turning over control of Arab neighborhoods in occupied east Jerusalem to the Palestinians along with the al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to Muslims, and also to Jews as the site of their last temple.
In return, Palestinians would waive the right of return for some 3.7 million refugees.
Israel would also withdraw from 95 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip.
US officials have not given details of the proposals.
However a version released by the Palestinian Authority Saturday broadly coincided with versions released to the US and Israeli media by the Israeli side.
Israel has already accepted the Clinton plan as "a basis for discussions," provided the Palestinians do the same, while asking for a certain number of modifications.
The Palestinian Authority has said it could only give a definitive answer to the suggestions after receiving a number of clarifications from the White House.
Clinton's Monday phone conversation with Arafat occurred as the Palestinian leader was meeting in Gaza with the senior European Union representative for foreign affairs, Javier Solana.
Sources within Solana's delegation expressed optimism Monday over the chances of resumed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
There was little let-up in the conflict Monday, with 20 people injured, one of them seriously, in an anti-Israeli bomb attack in Netanya, north of Tel Aviv. Four Palestinians died in other incidents -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
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