The Middle East peace talks collapsed yesterday at Camp David, with Israelis and Palestinians blaming each other for the impasse.
A disappointed President Clinton, who had brought the two sides together in the hope of a final settlement to 52 years of conflict in the region, expressed the hope that there would be another attempt in the near future.
"I feel that we have the elements here to keep this process going . . . I think it can happen," Mr Clinton told a press conference. "If you ask me did they make enough progress to get this done, yes. But they've got to go home and check. They've got to feel around."
The Israeli and Palestinian delegations said in a joint statement that they committed themselves "to continue their efforts to conclude an agreement on all permanent status issues as soon as possible".
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, and the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Yasser Arafat, said that both sides "understand the importance of avoiding unilateral actions that prejudge the outcome of negotiations and that their differences will be resolved only by good faith negotiations."
But behind the joint statement there was anger on both sides at what they saw as intransigence by the other after two weeks isolated at Camp David, 70 miles from Washington.
As the US delegation was still trying to broker an agreement on the difficult issue of the status of Jerusalem yesterday morning, Mr Arafat called for his motorcade and ordered his aircraft to be prepared to leave. A Palestinian official said: "He is very angry and he doesn't believe the Israelis are willing to make peace. It's a waste of time to stay here any longer."
At a news conference later, Mr Barak blamed the Palestinians for the breakdown because of what he called Mr Arafat's "intransigence" over the future of Jerusalem. "It takes two to tango," Mr Barak said.
The Israeli leader also said that any concessions made during the negotiations were not binding on any future talks between the two sides. He also said he would never compromise on the unity or strength of Jerusalem.
Diplomatic sources said the Israelis were unwilling to put on paper the idea of shared sovereignty over parts of Arab East Jerusalem that they appeared to have accepted previously. At the same time the Palestinians stuck doggedly to their demand for full sovereignty over all of Arab East Jerusalem, including the Old City with the exception of the Jewish quarter and the Wailing Wall.
At 3 a.m. yesterday Mr Arafat sent a letter to Mr Clinton saying he saw no point in continuing the negotiations because the Israeli position on Jerusalem could never lead to agreement, Palestinian sources said. They said Mr Arafat was infuriated when Israel rejected Palestinian sovereignty over the old walled city of Jerusalem and offered only access to the al-Aqsa mosque, which is the third most holy site for Muslims.
Mr Clinton said that Jerusalem had been the most difficult issue but that even on that there was not "a great deal of disagreement" on the practical, operational questions of the way people there would live under some future accord.