Clinton speaks with Arafat and Barak

US President Bill Clinton today said that there will be a summit next week between the Palestinians and Israelis in Washington. He said the Palestinians and Israelis have leadership now that is visionary, stressing the importance of reaching an agreement by the September 13 deadline saying both sides "understand the stakes."

US President Bill Clinton on Monday evening made two telephone calls with the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and the Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.

Meantime, Palestinian officials said on Monday in Gaza that the US had proposed the convening of one or two meetings with Israel and the Palestinian government in this month July and in August in order to reach an agreement before September 13, the set date for a final peace agreement.

However, Palestinian officials stressed that any meeting is doomed to failure unless the gap of disputes is narrowed with Israel. They called for holding talks on lower levels in Washington for other three weeks starting as from next week, before the convening of the tripartite meeting between Israel, the Palestinians and the USA.