Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Barak expects German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to put pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to return to the negotiating table during his upcoming Middle East tour, according to a weekly German newspaper's Thursday edition.
"It seems as if Arafat -- for the moment at least -- is not ready for peace," Barak was quoted as saying in the weekly Stern.
The Israeli prime minister said in the interview that he expects Schroeder, along with other European Union governments, to use his influence with Arafat "in order that he ends the violence and returns to the negotiating table."
The chancellor has scheduled a Middle East tour from October 28 to November 3 with visits to Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Barak said in the interview that the Israeli government wants to avoid "driving the Palestinians into a corner". "We will therefore neither hinder medical help nor cut telephone links, although they are dependent on us," he said.
On the other hand, as "democratic Jewish state, as vanguard of the democratic world in this turbulent region", Israel must be protected, he added.
The Israeli prime minister defended his efforts to bring Likud opposition leader Ariel Sharon into the government. "Once he is in the government I do not think he will be a stumbling block," Barak was quoted as saying.
He said the Likud's program was also for peace.
Barak said he would never lose his determination "to seek every path to a peaceful conclusion, even if in view of the events of the last three weeks some aspects of such an agreement have to be reconsidered." -- HAMBURG, Germany (AFP)
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