An international conference in Ashbelya

The London- based al-Hayat daily said in its Thursday's issue quoting sources at the UN that the UN secretary general Kofi Annan received an American green light from the US administration to strongly interfere in the peace process.

The sources told the paper that Annan intends to invite 60 members of high ranking Israeli, Arab, American and European figures to a conference to be held in the Spanish city of Ashbelya by the beginning of May 1st to achieve two objectives. The first to place the UN at the core of the peace process and ensure an international unanimous stand on the framework that can be negotiated upon to end the conflict.

The sources said that among the participants in the conference are prominent figures like the Syrian deputy foreign minister Walid al-Muaallim, the representative of the foreign policy at the European Union Javier Solana, the Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Maher, the Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal, former Israeli foreign minister Sholoumo Bin Ami, the Palestinian negotiators Saeb Oreikat; Ahmad Qrei', Mahmoud Abbas, and the chairman of the political planning department at the US state department Richard Haas, the US under secretary of state for near East affairs William Burns and the British and French ambassador to the UN.

The sources expected that Annan will debate his vision for the Arab- Israeli settlement and the conference will be divided into work groups to concentrate on areas of differences like Jerusalem, the refugees, the borders and the settlements.

The sources reported that the US ambassador at the UN informed the UN special envoy Terry Rod Larsen that Washington is planning to give the UN security council a greater role to search for a settlement.