Burns will not meet with Arafat; Boucher says

The spokesman for the US state department Richard Boucher said on Friday that the US special envoy for the Middle East, William Burns, does not intend to meet with the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat during his visit in the region which started on Friday.

Boucher expressed his hope that the Palestinian officials will boycott meeting with Burns in solidarity with Arafat. He said that the US Department of State hopes this matter will not be escalated to this level.

Boucher said that Burns spent Thursday in Paris meeting with the representatives of the Quartet group, which includes the US, the EU, Russia and the UN, in order to discuss the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

He indicated that the US secretary of state Colin Powell discussed with the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in Washington on Thursday a plan the said group is preparing, to be implemented during three years in order to establish an independent Palestinian state. Boucher added that Powell also discussed with Sharon the revenues of the Palestinian taxes which are being held by Israel.