After a threatened Israeli walkout, the Middle East summit was apparently heading towards a successful outcome after eight days of tough negotiations.
President Clinton arrived by helicopter yesterday morning at the Wye Plantation for the sixth time to push the Israeli and Palestinian leaders towards an interim agreement exchanging land for security.
On Wednesday the negotiations seemed doomed to fail as the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, rejected a US-Palestinian plan for security and ordered his plane to be ready for departure within hours. But he later backed off in what the Palestinians and Americans saw as brinkmanship for home consumption, and negotiations continued through the night.
King Hussein of Jordan also joined the talks for the second time yesterday as part of what is seen as the make-or-break phase of the summit, which was supposed to end last Sunday. The king has been in the United States for chemotherapy for cancer at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Before leaving the White House, President Clinton said: "The hardest decisions now at last are on the table. Israel, the Palestinians, the region and the world have very much at stake today." He urged the parties to "seize this opportunity and not retreat from this clear moment to capture the momentum of peace and keep it moving forward". The President was accompanied by Buddy, his chocolate-coloured Labrador dog. The Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, asked to meet Buddy when he greeted the President before a roaring fire in one of the dining rooms at the conference centre.
A few minutes later Mr Netanyahu arrived, and the three leaders conferred for almost an hour. Mr Clinton then began a series of separate meetings with the two men, as aides tried to put the finishing touches to an American document aimed at wrapping up an interim agreement.
Under this agreement, the Israelis would hand over 13 per cent of West Bank occupied territory and the Palestinians would give security guarantees. The security issue has been the main sticking point of the negotiations, but the Palestinians claimed that the various measures were agreed.
Mr Avin Bushinsky, spokesman for Mr Netanyahu, would only say that there had been progress on security, but the plan was not yet final.
The Israelis had been demanding the extradition of about 30 alleged terrorists, some of them members of the Palestinian police force. The Palestinians had rejected this demand but had accepted a US compromise whereby the CIA would have a role in identifying terrorists and having them tried and imprisoned in Palestinian territory.
Yesterday the main obstacles to an agreement were said to be the Israeli demand that the Palestinian National Council be convened to revoke the anti-Israel clauses in the 1964 charter of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Mr Arafat claims that these clauses were already revoked in 1996 by the 600-member PNC and he was refusing to reconvene it.
Another item causing difficulty was the question of a third Israeli troop withdrawal before the talks begin on the "final status" of a future Palestinian entity and of Jerusalem. The Israelis were opposing a third withdrawal which could be part of the final agreement, they said.
Other issues such as the opening of an international airport and seaport in Gaza and the right of free travel from Gaza to the West Bank are less contentious and would be in any agreement reached at the summit.