Arafat agrees to Washington talks

Madeleine Albright has met the Israeli leader twice in 24 hours

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has agreed to meet President Clinton for a fresh round of Middle East peace talks.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the meeting would be held in Washington next week.

She is trying to pave the way for a final deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians before the end of this year.

Mrs Albright, who had held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Monday, later had a second meeting with him.

A statement from the prime minister's office said the Israeli team at the US talks would be led by a Shlomo Ben-Ami, minister for public security, but added that the summit depended on the extent of progress in the deliberations.

Coalition opposition

Mr Barak is currently confronting a domestic political crisis that could hinder any peace moves.

The ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas party, whose support is crucial to the survival of the fragile 11-month old coalition government, is threatening to back an opposition bill calling for early parliamentary elections.

Mr Barak is also facing an angry campaign by Jewish extremists over the transfer to the Palestinians of land they consider part of biblical Israel.

Step by step

Mrs Albright has not so far said what progress she has made towards persuading the Israeli leader to take part in a three-way summit.

Mr Arafat is under pressure to stand up to the Israelis

But at a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the US Secretary of State said: "I am very pleased that the chairman [Mr Arafat] is going to be able to go to Washington along with the negotiators.

"We are taking this one step at a time," she said.

If a three-way meeting does go ahead, it could provide the much-needed push to get a final peace deal.

But Mr Arafat is under pressure from his own people to stand up to the Israelis, and demand that all of the West Bank is handed over to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal.

Our correspondent says the gaps between the two sides on the major issues are still huge and Madeleine Albright's agenda for forging a peace deal quickly is very ambitious.