Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon discussed prospects for Middle East peace with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York Wednesday, as the head of a US-led probe into Israeli-Palestinian violence issued an urgent appeal for a resumption of talks, said reports.
Former US senator George Mitchell, chairing the panel probing six months of bloodshed, urged all parties to "try urgently" to resume negotiations as more violence erupted during Sharon's four-day US visit, said AFP.
"The situation is urgent and difficult and is one that requires a great deal of concern ... by those who have responsibility to try to end the violence," Mitchell told reporters after dinner at Palestinian president Yasser Arafat's office in Ramallah.
Arafat said he briefed the Mitchell commission about the plight of the Palestinians faced with an Israeli blockade and other tough measures to contain the nearly six-month-old Palestinian uprising.
"We discussed the conditions in which we live due to (Israel's) escalation, from which our people suffer tremendously," Arafat was quoted by the agency as saying.
Earlier Wednesday, the commission held its first talks with members of Sharon's government.
At the United Nations, UN chief urged Sharon to ease restrictions on Palestinians and questioned plans to expand a Jewish settlement in Abu Ghneim (known to Israelis as Har Homa), said UN officials, quoted by Reuters.
Annan also said it would be dangerous to let the Palestinian Authority collapse, the agency reported.
Israeli spokesman Raanar Gissin quoted Sharon as saying he was prepared to ease the restrictions, including those that prevent Palestinians from working in Israel proper, said the agency.
"We would even like to do more. But I have a problem here. We will continue with easing the restrictions, but at the same time we will use a heavier hand toward terrorists, those who send them and those who abet them," Sharon was quoted as saying.
Sharon told Annan he would oppose any UN observers in the Palestinian territories. He said he feared "terrorists" could find shelter by hiding behind them and Israeli soldiers might then clash with observers.
The UN Security Council is mulling over a resolution on such a force, with Europeans seeking a compromise to avoid a US veto before an Arab summit begins in Amman next week, according to Reuters.
Sharon, meanwhile, urged Bush in Washington on Tuesday to endorse his position that peace talks were impossible until the Palestinian leader acted to end the violence.
But US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s advisor, Edward Walker, said the United States would not interfere in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, according to Haaretz newspaper.
Speaking in Washington, Walker said that the two sides would have to settle the conflict themselves, although he said that the US did not plan to cut itself off from the peace process, Haaretz said, quoting Israel Radio.
AFP said that Sharon had urged Bush not to invite Arafat to Washington because such a meeting "would be proof that terrorism pays."
However, Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdel Meguid said Wednesday in Cairo that Arafat would visit Washington in April.
A senior Palestinian official said the visit was planned but no invitation had been received from Washington – Albawaba.com
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