US President Bill Clinton was to meet separately with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Sharm el-Sheikh Monday, Israeli officials at an emergency Middle East summit said.
The officials, who asked not to be named, told AFP that a direct meeting between Barak and Arafat at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in Egypt was not yet on the cards.
A White House spokesman said Clinton was ready to stay at the summit until midday Tuesday (1000 GMT) if that proved necessary, but he was scheduled to leave at midnight local time (2200 GMT) Monday.
Meanwhile, Barak's security chief Danny Yatom said that summit talks with the Palestinians were fraught with "complications, difficulties and arguments," but stopped short of calling the situation a crisis.
Palestinian Culture and Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo also said that no progress has been made so far at the summit aimed at stopping the violence in the Palestinian territories – SHARM EL-SHEIKH (AFP)
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