President Clinton said yesterday he would send the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, to the Middle East next week to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a push towards a peace agreement.
The decision comes as both sides accused each other of dragging their feet in negotiations. After a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, in Lisbon, Mr Clinton said an intense effort was needed to complete a deal, but expressed optimism that a final peace settlement was "within view".
Mr Clinton had stayed on in Lisbon after the EU-US summit on Wednesday to meet Mr Barak. He flew to Germany later yesterday for the second leg of his European visit.
Speaking to a group of US embassy employees, Mr Clinton said he would also meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Washington next week.
An Israeli government spokesman said Ms Albright would arrive on Monday and would meet Mr Barak and Mr Arafat separately "in an effort to break the deadlock".
Although it had been anticipated Ms Albright would at some point travel to the Middle East to lay the groundwork for a US-Palestinian-Israeli summit on a final deal, a senior US official said it was not the purpose of next week's trip.
Speaking shortly before meeting Mr Clinton, Mr Barak said: "In recent weeks, we have seen some dragging of feet in regard to the running of negotiations."
A senior Arafat aide, Mr Nabil Abu Rdainah, speaking in Gaza yesterday, said: "The Israeli government has been wasting time and has not been serious about keeping deadlines. The most important thing in the current negotiations is for both parties to respect deadlines, especially that of September 13th. It is a Palestinian red line."
September 13th is the target date for reaching a final peace treaty, and is also the date on which Mr Arafat has said he will declare a Palestinian state.
Mr Clinton said he was convinced both sides were committed to reaching an agreement. He said Mr Barak had "reaffirmed his intense commitment to reach a historic and complete agreement with the Palestinians."
He added: "I know from my own discussions with Chairman Arafat that he also shares this commitment and that he recognises the real urgency of this moment". Mr Clinton said on Wednesday that Israel's pullout from southern Lebanon imposed a new sense of urgency on the peace process.
Israelis and Palestinians were due to resume talks yesterday on a framework accord which is intended to lay the ground for a final deal in September.
Meanwhile, a UN envoy said yesterday that he had held constructive talks with Lebanese officials on verifying Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon.
Mr Terje Roed Larsen said that technical issues had dominated almost two hours of talks, adding that UN experts would fly over parts of the south to ensure Israel had fully vacated the area. Lebanon has linked deploying its security forces in the volatile south to approval of the UN verification that Israel had withdrawn to international borders.
The EU envoy, Mr Miguel Angel Moratinos, urged Israel's Justice Minister to review the case of 20 Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails, an adviser to Mr Moratinos said yesterday.
Mr Moratinos, on a one-day stop-off in Israel after visiting Lebanon, "proposed that the Israelis look again at their policy regarding these prisoners, with the goal of seeing if they can eventually be released," the adviser, Mr Bernandino Leon, said.
The Justice Minister, Mr Yossi Beilin, "took note" of the EU request, Mr Leon said.