MIDDLE EAST: The US Secretary of State has pledged to do everything he could to end the violence writes Siona Jenkins from Cairo.
The second day of Mr Colin Powell's Middle Eastern peace mission ended with a commitment on the part of the US Secretary of State to meet with the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, when he travels to Jerusalem next week.
The Secretary of State also said that the United States would send Americans observers to the region to monitor the situation, long a key demand of Arab leaders lobbying for a more active US role in the peace process.
Once a ceasefire, that is "instantly linked" to political discussions, is negotiated, said Mr Powell, "the United States is prepared to put . . . US observers, monitors, on the ground. That will help with the confidence-building, restore the trust between the two sides, get us back to where we were a few years ago."
This, coupled with his intention to visit with Mr Arafat, may go some way to stem the Arab world's widespread frustration with Washington's unwillingness to curb Israel's military action in the West Bank.
It may also make them more receptive to his call for Arab leaders, including Palestinians, to take a stand against terrorism. "I ask all the Arabs now to speak out against this kind of activity . . . because there is a process waiting for us that will get us what we want, which is peace."
Pledging to do everything he could to end the violence, Mr Powell, nevertheless failed to offer any new ideas for forcing Israel to withdraw from the West Bank.
Mr Powell reiterated only that the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, had committed to "bring this to an end as quickly as he can."
"The President hopes that Prime Minister Sharon will end this operation quickly and start to remove the forces now, and we hope that yesterday's beginning steps were the beginning of the end," he told journalists after the talks.
Whether this will be enough for the Arabs remains to be seen, particularly as Israel's withdrawal from the towns of Qalqilya and Tulkarm on Monday was followed by an intensification of violence in the towns of Jenin and Nablus yesterday.
As the meeting was taking place in Cairo, popular anger at Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank erupted in several demonstrations around the city.
Several hundred people gathered for a peaceful rally in front of the parliament building and as many as 10,000 students held demonstrations at Al-Azhar University, burning Israeli and US flags in front of the campus.
Many Arabs, including the Moroccan king, Mohammed VI, during Mr Powell's stopover there on Monday, have criticised the Secretary of State for not going straight to Jerusalem, saying that it is giving Mr Sharon more time to continue his military operations.
Mr Powell denied this.
"What I am doing this week in these other meetings is putting together a consensus among all the nations that have an interest in this . . . so that I can go to Jerusalem with a powerful message both for Prime Minister Sharon and a message also for Chairman Arafat," he said.