US President Bill Clinton will contact Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak and Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, Tuesday in continued efforts to "to break the cycle of violence" in the Middle East, the White House said.
White House spokesman, Jake Siewert, said a three-way summit remained an "option under discussion," even though Egyptian Foreign Minister, Amr Moussa, ruled out Tuesday a new summit at of Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
"We have seen the report," Siewert said.
"We remain focused on what we can do in the shorter term to break the cycle of violence and we are going to continue to discuss that with Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Barak today."
As for the summit idea, "we will make a judgment on what we think we can do that is most effective ... and that is something we'll have to assess after talking to UN secretary general (Kofi Annan) and to the leaders today."
Siewert said Barak's postponement of a deadline for the Palestinians to put an end to the violence was "a helpful way to reduce the tension in the short term.
"We will see that further concrete steps the parties are ready to take," he added – WASHINGTON (AFP)
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