Netanyahu snubs Clinton

WASHINGTON, May 10: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has administered a virtual snub to US President Bill Clinton by rejecting his ...

WASHINGTON, May 10: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has administered a virtual snub to US President Bill Clinton by rejecting his invitation for a summit here tomorrow with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to break the 14-month-old deadlock in the US sponsored West-Asian peace process. A senior US official made it clear here last night that there was no possibility of the Washington summit but President Clinton would stay engaged, trying for the resumption of the Arab-Israeli dialogue.

Clinton had pressed both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to meet him tomorrow if both accepted a US plan for Israel to surrender 13 per cent of the West Bank territory that it now controls. Although Arafat agreed to the proposal, the Israeli leader did not accept the US condition for the meeting, arguing surrendering that much land would pose a security risk to his country.

The White House, in a statement said: The President8217;s invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahuand Chairman Arafat to initiate final status negotiations in Washington on Monday was conditioned on an understanding on all the issues.

It also referred to the discussions that special US mid-east envoy Dennis Ross had with Netanyahu in Israel and said that the differences remained. Ross would return to Washington to brief President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on his efforts to resolve the obstacles that scuttled the proposed summit.

Secretary Albright issued the invitations for the summit after she had separate talks in London early this week with Netanyahu and Arafat.Meanwhile, Reuter reports from Boston, a senior US official, ruling out a summit in Washington tomorrow, said Clinton was trying to set up the talks later this month.

Asked about the chances for a summit next week, a senior US official said, quot;It8217;s not going to be Monday.quot; quot;What I8217;ve heard today .. is that while people don8217;t think there8217;s going to be a meeting on Monday there is a sense that nothing8217;s been workedout.quot; White House deputy press secretary Joe Lockhart insisted, quot;The invitation remains on the table.quot;

Clinton had hoped to hold the summit before he departs on Tuesday to Germany and Britain including the annual gathering of the world8217;s leading industrial nations.