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Sharon Under Mounting International Pressure to Allow Peres-Arafat Meeting
JERUSALEM, Sept 24 (News Agencies) - Europe and the United States piled pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday to allow Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but violence in the region buried hopes of an immediate meeting.
"This meeting is urgent, not to settle everything, but to start a de-escalation," said French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine after talks with Sharon.
Vedrine was leading a European diplomatic offensive to bring about peace talks to shore up a fragile truce.
The French minister echoed the words of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who phoned Peres on Sunday to tell him his planned meeting with Arafat was "urgent".
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who is due to arrive here from a trip to Iran and Jordan on Tuesday, told the BBC the meeting should take place as soon as possible.
Arafat himself said he would meet Peres when he returns from a two-day trip to Syria, which aims to revive ties after two decades of deteriorating relations.
But the slaying of a young Israeli woman on a road in the West Bank buried hopes of an immediate meeting.
The Palestinian group Islamic Jihad said its gunmen had killed the 28-year-old woman in a "heroic operation" in the Jordan valley.
Sharon has demanded 48 hours of what he calls "absolute calm" before he will allow Peres to meet Arafat.
On Sunday he cancelled a scheduled meeting at the last minute following a Palestinian mortar attack on a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
Monday's killing shattered a fragile ceasefire declared last week by Arafat and Israel under heavy pressure from a U.S. government anxious for peace as it prepares its response to the September 11th terror attacks in the United States.
Sharon, a former general, promised that the delayed Peres-Arafat meeting would go ahead but only after Arafat stops the violence on the ground.
"Israel wants peace," he said, adding: "Israel wants to give the Palestinians that which nobody has previously offered them - not the Turks, nor the English, nor the Egyptians - the chance to build their own state."
Yet despite international pressure, Sharon insists he will not negotiate "under fire", which he fears would allow Arafat to play the peacemaker while continuing the violence.
Arafat was dismissive of Sharon's comments.
"Have you seen also the number of Palestinians killed and injured by the Israelis?" he said.
"Despite all of this, it did not prevent me from agreeing to go ahead with the meeting with Mr. Peres yesterday, which was only prevented by Mr. Sharon," he added after meeting Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland.
Jagland, a member of the international Mitchell commission which came up with a blueprint for ending the violence, said: "The ceasefire which was announced unilaterally [by Arafat on September 18] was a very, very important step forwards."
"I will be crystal clear in my meetings with the Israeli leaders today that it is essential that it is followed up by a meeting between president Arafat and Shimon Peres later," he stressed.
Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner was also touring Jordan, Syria and Egypt on Monday. She and Straw were to meet Arafat during an overnight stop-off in Amman, Palestinian officials said.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stressed the need for a "just solution" in the Middle East with a view to wiping out terrorism, in a meeting with Ferrero-Waldner.
Domestic pressure has also risen on Sharon with speculation that Peres could quit the coalition government if he is finally banned from meeting Arafat, with whom he shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.
In a move unlikely to ease tensions but which the Jewish state says is needed to protect its territory, Israel on Monday set up a military buffer zone along part of its boundary with the northern West Bank.
The army says that the new conditions, which will place severe restrictions on Palestinians, were taken to prevent "terrorist attacks" in Israel and to prevent Palestinians entering Israel illegally to work without permission.
Palestinians slammed the zone, calling it a preparation by Israel to annex the land in the area.
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