Israel's acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami said on Thursday there would be no new peace summit without more "flexibility" from the Palestinians.
"The question of the summit is for the time being is not really on the agenda," Ben Ami told reporters. "What is on the agenda is trying to detect any meaningful change in the positions on the other side."
"We feel that in order for us to be able to proceed to a new and more momentous step in this process we need to have some flexibility from the other side," he added.
Ben Ami was speaking ahead of the arrival later Thursday of US Middle East troubleshooter Dennis Ross on a new mission to try to forge a peace deal that would end decades of conflict.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat not to miss a chance of achieving peace.
A statement from his office after Barak met King Abdullah of Jordan said, "The prime minister expressed the hope that Mr Arafat will seize the historic occasion to conclude an agreement that will serve the interests of both peoples, and stressed that only openness and flexibility in the Palestinian position can enable a breakthrough to be made which will end in an accord." - OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP)
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