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Barak, Albright End First Meeting on Peace Process
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ended their first meeting Jerusalem in the small hours of Wednesday.
The meeting lasted about three hours, but no official words came about the content of their discussions.
Sources close to the meeting said that Barak and Albright focused their attention on the Middle East peace process, particularly issues concerning the Israeli-Palestinian final-status talks.
The two also discussed the possibility of convening a three-way summit in Washington in the near future between Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton, the sources added.
As the two began their talks inside Barak's office late Tuesday night, thousands of Jewish settlers gathered outside the hotel where Albright is staying to protest against U.S. interference in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The demonstrators from various settlements of the West Bank shouted anti-U.S. slogans and asked Albright to "go home."
Some demonstrators held up signs warning, "Clinton, God will punish you."
The main purpose of Albright's current visit to the region is to arrange a U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking summit in Washington which is opposed by Arafat, who fears the U.S. would side with Israel on many issues and he would be pressured into concessions.
The Palestinian side also said the time is not ripe for a summit because gaps still remain between the two sides in the final-status talks.
But Barak wants this top-level gathering, saying the negotiations with the Palestinians have reached a stage in which the leaders have to make decisions on all key issues of the peace talks.
Barak also brought U.S. special Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross to meet his coalition partners on Tuesday to persuade them to back him to strike a peace deal with the Palestinians.
Albright is scheduled to hold talks Wednesday with Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy and Arafat before holding another meeting with Barak later in the day.
Albright arrived in the region Tuesday evening.
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