Clinton to Set New Deadline for Israeli-Palestinian Talks 　　U.S. President Bill Clinton sent a letter to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on April 26, expressing his support for extending "accelerated" final status talks to reach a deal within a year, local daily Haaretz reported. 　　Informed sources said that the letter is due to arrive before the 124-member Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) meeting on Tuesday. 　　The letter is aimed at persuading the Palestinians to postpone their unilateral declaration of statehood scheduled for May 4. 　　Sources said the letter would oppose any unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood. The United States opposes the French position that the U.S. should automatically recognize a Palestinian state if final status talks do not succeed within a year. 　　The letter, the first expression of the U.S. support for an "accelerated" year of talks on the final status of Palestinian statehood, was the subject of negotiations between the Clinton administration and Palestinian top negotiators Mahmoud Abbas and Saeb Erekat in Washington last week. 　　Sources said that Clinton would repeat in the letter a formulation similar to what he said during a speech to the members of the Palestinian National Council in Gaza last December. At the time, Clinton said "Israel must recognize the right of the Palestinians to live freely today, tomorrow, and forever." 　　Such a formulation is considered less forceful than an unequivocal expression of the U.S. support for Palestinian self-determination. 　　The letter also would express opposition to unilateral Israeli actions such as building and expanding settlements in occupied Arab lands. 　　Under the 1993 Oslo accord, the final status negotiations between Israel and the PNA should be finished on May 4 this year. But the talks between two sides have been stalled for most of the time since the right-wing Israeli Likud government came to power in 1996. 　　The Palestinians claimed that they have the right to declare the independent state after the deadline of the final status talks expires in May. WorldNews 1999-04-27 Page6 Full Story in Chinese