THE White House Middle East summit fizzled out yesterday without any breakthrough on major items, but with a commitment to continue negotiations in the region with US assistance.
President Clinton read out a "summarising statement" in the East Room while the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin, Netanyahu, the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and King Hussein of Jordan sat to one side.
Following pressure from journalists to allow the Middle Eastern leaders speak for themselves, President Clinton offered them the rostrum to answer questions, abut after a quick consultation they declined. The President joked: "This is a miracle. I didn't part the waters, but I silenced the voices."
Mr Clinton put the best face possible on what turned out to be a summit with meagre results. He insisted that the agreement to resume "continuing negotiations" from next Sunday in the Middle East was an important step forward. There had been no such negotiations since Mr Netanyahu had become Prime Minister, he pointed out.
Mr Clinton said that two other goals of the summit had also been met, namely, to "curb the terrible violence and deaths" of last week, and to get the Israeli and Palestinian leaders "talking again ate the highest levels".
The US ambassador for Middle Eastern affairs, Mr Denis Ross, will be sent immediately to help both sides at the talks beginning next Sunday.
The lack of substantive results is unlikely to damage President Clinton electorally. His ratings in the polls have shot up since the summit was announced and in spite of a warning from his opponent, Mr Bob Dole, not to put pressure on "our friend Israel". Mr Dole was to meet Mr Netanyahu later yesterday.
After the apparently promising start to the summit with the three hour meeting on Tuesday between Mr Arafat and Mr Netanyahu, the follow up talks between senior aides ran into difficulties. After meeting all Tuesday night and until 5 a.m. yesterday morning, "we did not agree on one thing," a Palestinian official said.
The main sticking paint was the Palestinian demand backed by President Clinton, that the Israelis set a date for the withdrawal of their troops from Hebron. Mr Arafat was said to be prepared to accept a trade off whereby he would accept the reopening of the Jerusalem tunnel in exchange for the Israeli withdrawal from Hebron.
Insisting that the summit been a valuable exercise, Netanyahu said later that he "absolutely committed" to redeployment of Israeli troops in Hebron. This, he said, would require "intensive negotiations". If necessary, "Arafat and I will sit down to solve it," he added.
The Israeli premier said he had now established a "different relationship" with Mr Arafat as a result of their talks. "We had a greater opportunity to get to know one another," he said.
But Mr Mustafa Natsheh, Palestinian mayor of Hebron, said: "The peace process is on the verge of collapse. Unless international and Arab public opinion and Israeli peace groups move, the area will not witness any calm and the cycle of violence will return anew.
Egypt said progress towards peace needed action, not just more promises from Mr Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Israeli forces shot dead one Palestinian and injured two others in incidents on the West Bank.
Patrick Smyth adds from Brussels: In response to an urgent appeal from the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Yasser Arafat a special £16 million package of EU aid to the Palestinians is being put together, the Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Gay Mitchell, told MEPs yesterday. The EU is already the largest donor to the Palestinians.
Mr Mitchell, who was speaking to the parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, said Ireland was also considering an additional special humanitarian aid grant to help those Palestinians directly affected by the conflict.