President Clinton, trying to get the Middle East peace process moving, will meet the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, on January 20th and the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, on January 22nd, the White House has announced. The Washington meetings had already been scheduled but dates had not been set.
Mr Clinton will meet separately with the two leaders, and officials said there were no plans at this stage for a joint meeting.
"The president thought this was the right time to bring both leaders to Washington to try to move the peace process forward," the White House spokesman, Mr Joe Lockhart, said.
Mr Lockhart said the Clinton administration viewed Sunday's announcement by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr David Levy, that he was resigning as "an internal Israeli matter", and declined further comment.
But the State Department said the Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, had asked Mr Dennis Ross, the US Middle East mediator, to maintain his plans to travel to the region this week.
"That plan has not changed. Of course, the secretary [Ms Albright] will be following the situation closely," a spokesman, Mr James Rubin, said in a statement.
Mr Clinton's Washington meeting with Mr Netanyahu will be their first since the Israeli prime minister complained angrily that Mr Clinton snubbed him on his last trip to the United States in November.
Mr Clinton denied any such snub, saying he only wanted to have a meeting in the event it could lead to some kind of progress.
The French Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, said yesterday that the paralysis of the Middle East peace process is dangerous for everybody and policymakers should do everything possible to relaunch it. "What concerns my country regarding the situation in the region is the general state of the peace process," Mr Vedrine told a news conference during a one-day visit to Lisbon.
"The top priority in the region is to do everything so that the peace process is re-launched," he said.
Jordan yesterday expressed fears that political turmoil in Israel would hold up the peace process by at least another six months and harm prospects for regional stability.
"There are now new developments inside Israel which are disrupting further and further the peace process. . . many events are overtaking us." The resignation of Mr Levy "may put the whole Israeli cabinet in a crisis" the Foreign Minister, Mr Fayez alTarawnah, told reporters.