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Barak to meet Clinton on peace process

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak will meet US President Bill Clinton on Tuesday in Washington to discuss the peace process on all fronts, Barak's office said.

The leaders will focus on the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, but will also discuss a planned Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and efforts to resume Israeli-Syrian talks, Barak spokesman Gadi Baltiansky said.

Barak will spend one day in the United States for the talks, he said.

The meeting comes as part of renewed Israeli efforts to revive talks with the Palestinians since recent American attempts to reopen the negotiations between Israel and Syria have proven fruitless.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told his ministers in a meeting on Friday that the recent talks with Israel in Washington have not yielded any progress and the negotiations are a "waste of time." Arafat is slated to meet Clinton a few days after Barak does.

The Palestinians and Israel have set September 13 as a deadline for the final peace agreement between them but have been unable to make headway on any of the issues, which include the status of Jerusalem, borders of a Palestinian state, Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlements.

A Palestinian official said on Saturday on condition of anonymity that the main bone of contention between the sides in the Washington negotiations was how much land the Palestinians would get as part of the final agreement.ÑAP