French President Jacques Chirac met on November 8 with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in two separate meetings at the Elysee presidential palace.

Arafat and Barak, both of whom were in Paris to attend a Socialist International congress, did not have their own meeting here.

The meetings were held one day after French president received the son of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad, at the Elysee palace.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine also make a trip to Syria and Lebanon next week to discuss possible French mediation between the two Arab countries and Israel in a resumption of peace talks.

In a statement made after his meeting with Chirac, Arafat said that Israel must respect the United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 which asks the Jewish state to withdraw from all Palestinian territories.

He said that this resolution served as the basis not only for the early stages of the peace process such as the Madrid conference and the Oslo talks, but also for the Charm-el-Sheikh framework agreement signed last month.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday that Resolution 242 was not suitable for application in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Barak, who was in Paris for a second time within one month, said that he agreed with the French president that ``all should be done to end 100 years of conflict in the Middle East.''

He said that it is time for Israel to ``make brave man's peace'' with Syria.

``We should work simultaneously on three wings (of peace process): Israeli-Palestinian, Syrian-Israeli and Lebanese-Israeli, in a way in which all the parties would win in the light of what would push forward the peace process,'' he said.

He denied that Chirac delivered to him a letter from Syrian president.

Israel and Syria suspended their peace talks after former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in mid-1995.