US optimistic over Palestinian-Israeli negotiations

US President Bill Clinton from Moscow spoke on the telephone with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and discussed with them the efforts exerted to revive peace negotiations between the two sides.

A US official who asked not to be identified said: "We have become closer more than any time before" to an accord providing for a partial Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank that would salvage negotiations from their bottleneck. He added, "The progress steps are slow and frustrating, but a result should be reached." He added that Clinton's telephone call with Netanyahu lasted 30 minutes. Netanyahu on Monday called upon the Palestinians to resume negotiations with his government.

Meanwhile, Palestinian sources said that Israeli Army on Wednesday arrested 18 Palestinians, who are members of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine in an arrest campaign launched against the Palestinian villages of Madma and Aserat al-Qiblieh, near Nablus. The sources expected the arrest campaign to have been made in reaction to the killing of Israeli settlers in August in an ambush.