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Israel summons Papal envoy over meddling in ME peace

JERUSALEM: Israel summoned a Papal envoy on Wednesday to protest what it said was interference in peace talks by the Vatican, which signed an accord with the PLO cautioning Israel to refrain from unilateral steps on Jerusalem, the Israeli foreign ministry said.

The ministry said what it called an "urgent" closed-door meeting between Papal envoy to Israel Monsignor Pietro Sambi and ministry Director-General Eytan Bentsur had begun, and would focus on the agreement, which called unilateral decisions on Jerusalem morally and legally unacceptable.

Pope John Paul is to visit Israel and Palestinian-ruled areas of the Holy Land on March 21-26. He and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat discussed Middle East peacemaking in Rome on Tuesday while their delegations signed the agreement containing 12 articles dealing mostly with the Vatican's interests in Palestinian-ruled areas.

The agreement reaffirms clauses in the landmark 1993 Israel-PLO accord which called on the sides to refrain from any unilateral acts that could prejudice the outcome of talks aimed at a permanent peace treaty.

But the language of the Vatican-PLO accord angered Israel, which called the agreement "interference in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians".

The Vatican rejects Israel's claim to Arab East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as part of the Jewish state's "united and indivisible capital". Palestinians see the city's eastern half as the capital of a future independent state.-Reuters