The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has arrived in the United States for talks with President Clinton aimed at breaking the stalemate in the Middle East peace process.

However, US officials have been playing down hopes of any breakthrough in the talks, which will focus on further Israeli troop redeployment from the West Bank.

Their view will have been reinforced by Mr Netanyahu's vigorous defence of his policy on Monday evening.

He told a meeting in Washington that Israel had fulfilled all its obligations and that the Palestinian National Authority was to blame for not living up to its side of the agreement.

President Clinton has made no secret of his frustration with the year-long deadlock in the peace process and he insists it is now up to the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make some difficult decisions. For Mr Netanyahu, that means more troop withdrawals in the West Bank.

But the Israeli leader says further redeployments depend on Palestinian efforts to protect Israeli security and his cabinet has made clear that it will not hand over the amount of territory that the US thinks is necessary, let alone what the Palestinians demand.

The BBC's State Department correspondent, Richard Lister, says that the Clinton administration, anticipating the lack of a breakthrough, is keeping the visit low-key.

There will be no news conference after the talks and not even an official lunch for Mr Netanyahu.

Mr Clinton is meeting Palestinian leader Mr Arafat on Thursday and he is expected to be greeted with a similar lack of ceremony

The overriding message from the White House to both leaders is that it is time to get down to business before time runs out for a peaceful settlement.
 

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage	©