Truce talks proceed between Israelis, Palestinians with little sign of progress

U.S.-supervised truce talks between Israel and the Palestinians are going ahead despite few signs of progress and much criticism of Yasser Arafat by the Bush administration. <br><br>Violence raged Sunday

Monday, March 25th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

U.S.-supervised truce talks between Israel and the Palestinians are going ahead despite few signs of progress and much criticism of Yasser Arafat by the Bush administration.

Violence raged Sunday even with the cease-fire effort. Israeli commandos backed by helicopters tracked and killed four militants who slipped across the normally quiet border with Jordan, and seven other people were killed in incidents elsewhere.

The administration clings to the hope that the bloodshed can be stopped and that Arafat can and should control militant groups who have made it clear they have no intention of halting their killing of Israeli civilians until, at least, Israel yields the West Bank and Gaza.

The truce terms U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni is working on do not require Israel to give up the land the Arabs lost in the 1967 war. President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, however, regularly hold out to the Palestinians the vision of eventually getting a state for themselves on that land.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who was prepared to fly to Egypt to see Arafat if he agreed to a truce, said Sunday the Palestinian leader had not earned such a meeting.

The two sides met Sunday under U.S. auspices and evidently made little, if any, headway toward building a truce that would start Israel and the Palestinians into preliminary peacemaking.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said another meeting was scheduled for Monday. Talks cannot be held from sunset Wednesday until nightfall Thursday because of observance by Israelis of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

``It is slow going,'' a U.S. official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. ``Progress has been very slow. It's fair to point a finger of blame at the Palestinians.''

Cheney said Arafat had not met a series of conditions for a meeting, including renouncing terrorism and sharing intelligence with the Israelis.

``We're going to do everything we can to try to bring the bloodshed to an end and get on a political track, but we're not there yet,'' Cheney said Sunday on CBS' ``Face the Nation''.

Powell, traveling with Bush in Latin America, said the vice president ``could go at a later time. It doesn't have to be right away. The important point is that Chairman Arafat knows we want to engage with him as we move forward.''

Cheney framed a possible meeting as ``just one more piece, if you will, of the whole proposition'' toward peacemaking. ``I wouldn't overdo it, in the sense that somehow everybody's focused in on this is the be-all and end-all of the process. It's not. It's a part of the process,'' he told CNN's ``Late Edition.''

Bush, meanwhile, has shunned Arafat, withholding an invitation to the White House. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been there four times in the past year.

Powell said he and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah have reviewed the draft of an Arab League declaration they hoped will be adopted. The Saudi peace plan calls for an end to the Israel-Arab conflict in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from disputed territories, according to a draft received by the Palestinians.

However, it leaves the explosive issue of Palestinian refugees open to broad interpretations. Also, Israel rejects the main element _ a full withdrawal from the territories it captured in 1967.

Previous reports have said the Saudi proposal called for the Arab world to have peaceful relations and normalized ties with Israel. This wording isn't included in the draft received by the Palestinians.