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EU's Solana to push for Middle East truce meeting
( 2001-09-03 09:44 ) (7 )

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana was expected to pursue a diplomatic drive on Monday to bring about talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders on ending more than 11 months of violence.

While painstaking diplomacy continued in the region itself, Middle East politics spilled over to dominate a UN conference on racism in South Africa.

Israel weighed pulling out its low-level delegation to the gathering in Durban unless wording condemning Israeli policies against Palestinians as racist is removed from the forum's draft resolutions.

Solana was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to pave the way for truce talks between the Palestinian leader and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Both sides have sought to reduce expectations on a concrete outcome from a meeting. Sharon was due to travel to Russia later on Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

"We don't want to exaggerate or heighten expectations. On the other hand we don't want to produce another disappointment, so we are preparing it as carefully as possible," Peres told reporters during a visit to a Tel Aviv school.

"We are looking for the right time and the right venue."

Palestinian cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo was similarly low-key on the potential of talks.

"We will discuss with Mr. Solana the preparations needed for any future meeting but there's no schedule yet, there's no place decided, and there's no preparation made yet in order to guarantee the minimum requirement for success of the meeting," he told reporters on Sunday.

One potential venue for a meeting might be at a September 7-9 business conference at Cernobbio, near Milan, diplomats said during the weekend.

Previous rounds of talks between Peres and Arafat have done little to curb the violence since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began last September shortly after peace talks stalled.

PALESTINIAN DIES OF WOUNDS

The death toll crept higher on Monday when Palestinian Khaled Awaja, 25, died of wounds sustained during a brief Israeli raid in Gaza on Friday, medical officials said.

At least 551 Palestinians and 157 Israelis have died in the bloodshed.

Overnight, suspected Palestinian gunmen shot at an Israeli car on a road between Jerusalem and the town of Nataf, inside Israel. One man was lightly wounded, Israeli police said.

A Jewish settler was moderately wounded when gunmen opened fire at his car near the divided West Bank city of Hebron.

The new violence followed gun battles in Hebron the previous night in which Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians.

NORWAY PROPOSES COMPROMISE AT RACE TALKS

The US and Israel sent low-level delegations to the racism conference to protest against language called for by Arab states accusing Israel of "apartheid" and "crimes against humanity."

US Congressman Tom Lantos said on Sunday Norway had proposed a compromise resolution acceptable to Washington, without elaborating.

A parallel global meeting of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) branded Israel a "racist apartheid" state on Sunday for its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Peres minced no words in response: "It is an outburst of hate, of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism without any consideration."

U.N. rights chief Mary Robinson lamented that the conference's broad agenda on racism and intolerance was being hijacked by Middle East politics and said she personally opposed the NGO declaration on Israel.