JERUSALEM - The US envoy to the Middle East, Mr Dennis Ross, held high-level talks in Gaza and Jerusalem yesterday in an effort to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the PLO, but appeared to make little headway.
In his second trip to the region in a month, Mr Ross met the Palestinian President, Mr Arafat, in Gaza and later held talks in Jerusalem with the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Netanyahu.
An Arafat spokesman, Mr Marwan Kanafani, said the Palestinian leader stressed to Mr Ross the need to stop all settlement activity before peace talks could resume. Mr Netanyahu's aide, Mr David Bar-Illan, said the work of settlement-building would continue. "There are difficult problems that have to be over- come, but we all realise the importance of trying to find ways to move forward," Mr Ross told reporters in Gaza after meeting Mr Arafat. He was due to hold further talks with the Palestinian leader today.
Meanwhile, on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives, Jewish settlers yesterday moved into a house acquired for a Jewish religious seminary from a church. "We don't negate the right of Arabs to live in Jerusalem but Jews have a right to live in all of the city," said Mr Chaim Silberstein, the school's director.