Arafat Firmly Supports Middle East Peace Conference

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, May 31, 2002

Arafat Firmly Supports Middle East Peace Conference

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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat expressed his firm backing for a Middle East peace conference in an interview published by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica Thursday, adding that Italy would be a suitable venue for such an event.

Arafat told La Repubblica daily that "an international peace conference is absolutely necessary and perhaps represents the only way out."

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who is also Italy's acting foreign minister, has repeatedly offered to host such a conference and on Tuesday, at a landmark Russia-NATO summit near Rome, the centre-right leader said he was ready to use a conference center in the Sicilian city of Erice.

Arafat stressed that "Italy has a particularly important role to play, Italy has taken a leadership position in the EU and really can do something to get the peace talks started up again."

He said he would be happy to attend such a peace conference in Italy, but his participation depended on Israel. "I'm not sure if I'm free to travel, to go abroad. But I would love to start with a trip to Italy," he said.

In March, Israeli troops laid siege to Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah in response to a wave of suicide bombings and Arafat was kept under confinement until May 2.

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