Closing Session of Mideast Summit in Egypt BeginsThe closing session of the two-day multi-lateral Mideast Summit began at 11:50 a.m. (0950 GMT) on Tuesday in Sharm el Sheikh.The session was pre-scheduled to be held at 10:00 a.m. (0800 GMT) but was postponed because of sharp differences between Israel and the Palestinians over some issues. The summit was called to help end the more than two weeks of the bloody clashes between Isreali forces and Palestinian demonstrators, which has claimed over 100 lives and injured more than 3,000 others, most of them Palestinians, and salvage the vulnerable peace process. The summit was hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and also attended by U.S. President Bill Clinton, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Jordan's King Abdullah II and European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solona. |
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