Mid-East talks end with no deal

President Clinton has only weeks left to strike a deal

US President Bill Clinton has ended talks with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at the White House, with no sign of the breakthrough he had hoped for.

He hosted the discussions in a last-ditch attempt to seal a peace deal before he leaves office in January.

We would like to see an agreement during President Clinton's presidency

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat

Although the two sides did not reach agreement, Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami called the talks "very encouraging".

Before going to the White House, the two sides had been negotiating for four days behind closed doors at Bolling Air Force base.

Reports have emerged that Israel is offering concessions on the key issue of sovereignty over Jerusalem.

But Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said as he left the White House that problems remained over Jerusalem, as well as on security, refugees and borders.

Palestinian protesters have marched through Washington

"I regret that major gaps still exist," he told reporters.

Mr Ben-Ami said he expected the Israelis to respond to new proposals from President Clinton by Wednesday.

"Inevitably, differences remain, but I feel it was a very encouraging round of talks," he told journalists.

Envoy

The BBC's Stephen Sackur says time is running out, and over the next few days all the parties must decide whether, as the Israelis put it, there is now the basis for an end game in the peace process.

As well as the impending change of administration at the White House, Israeli Prime minister Ehud Barak is standing for re-election in February.

Mr Clinton is now expected to decide whether to send an envoy to the region to continue pushing for an agreement.

Ben-Ami: Very encouraged by talks

Further confrontation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is providing a morbid backdrop to the talks, as Palestinians bury the latest of 350 people killed in three months of Israeli-Arab violence.

A Palestinian died of his wounds on Saturday, nine days after he was shot by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip. Abdullah Qannan had been in a taxi driven by a Hamas member, who also died in the attack.

Another Palestinian, civil defence officer Nidal Abu Aoun, 30, also died on Saturday, three days after being hit by Israeli gunfire while driving on the main road through Gaza.

Jerusalem on the table

According to a briefing by Mr Ben Ami to American Jewish leaders, Israel has offered Palestinians sovereignty over Muslim and Christian shrines in east Jerusalem's Old City, including the area Jews revere as the Temple Mount.

But Israel insists on extending its own sovereignty around the main Jewish settlements, where 80% of settlers live on land which, like east Jerusalem, was captured by Israel in the 1967 war.

Israel will refuse to take moral or legal responsibility for the (Palestinian) refugees

Barak aide Danny Yatom

In return, the Israelis want more than 3.5 million Palestinian refugees to drop their UN-backed "right of return" to the homes they fled when Israel came into being in 1948.

Senior aide to the Israeli prime minister Danny Yatom told Israeli public radio: "We will see if it is possible to fill the gaps, which are still wide, and if the changes achieved lend themselves to holding a summit, but I am not sure this will be the case."

The Palestinian leadership, for its part, said it had detected no change in the Israeli attitude, which it blames for the collapse of talks on these issues at the abortive Camp David summit in the summer.

"The Israeli government prides itself on wanting to seek peace through negotiations, but at the same time it pursues its policy of aggression, of closing borders and of collective punishment of the Palestinians," said a statement issued in Gaza after a Friday night cabinet meeting.