No progress in Albright-Netanyahu Paris summit

The three-hour Paris meeting held between Israeli Premier Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has failed to make any progress, but Washington stressed it will apply pressures against Israel, according to Israeli radio.

Following the meeting, Albright refused to make press statements except that she is heading for London to meet with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Albright described her talks with Netanyahu as satisfactory but declined to give any details concerning the Middle East peace process.

Albright, who left the Israeli embassy in Paris following her meeting with Netanyahu, said the talks were very satisfactory. Netanyahu did not give Albright a West Bank redeployment map, but repeated his claims that the peace process depends on the extent of the commitment of the Palestinian side to its obligations.

He went on to say that the meeting discussed Israeli security interests and the final stage of negotiations with the Palestinians, but he did not specify the areas to be redeployed in the second phase of redeployment.