JERUSALEM, AMMAN, (Islamweb & News Agencies)-Efforts to end the bloodshed in the Middle East accelerated - despite another Palestinian Resistance bombing in Jerusalem, injuring 13 other people.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators said they were preparing for several rounds of high-level talks later in the week.On Monday night European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana secretly arranged the highest-level contact in weeks between Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and two senior Palestinian officials.(Read photo caption)
I think that we are making some headway," Mr Solana told reporters in Amman after holding talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II.The preparations came during one of the most intensive waves of bombing by Palestinian militants in more than 11 months of fighting against Israeli occupation.
But Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was in conciliatory frame of mind after meeting Mr Solana, saying he was "greatly saddened for those civilians who were injured today."
Secret talks
Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qurai, who met Mr Peres on Monday night along with senior negotiator Saeb Erekat, said a detailed agenda for the Arafat-Peres talks had been worked on.
The meeting might take place on the sidelines of an economic conference on the shores of Lake Como in Italy on Friday; the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza, Taba in Egypt and New York City were also named as possible locations.Plans for a meeting were put on ice last week when Israel assassinated a senior PLO official, triggering widespread retaliatory Palestinian gunfire which, in turn, prompted a two-day Israeli incursion into the West Bank town of Beit Jala.
PHOTO CAPTION:
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, right, accompanied by Palestinian officials, inspect the Palestinian police headquarters in Gaza, which was damaged as Israeli jets attacked it last month, during a visit in Gaza Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2001. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana Tuesday. (AP Photo/Suhaib Salem, Pool)
- Sep 04 10:06 AM ET