Arafat says Palestinians giving peace a chance

GAZA (Reuters) -- Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said Tuesday the Palestinians had given peace another chance in order to avoid criticism by Israel and the United States.

Arafat said the Palestinian Liberation Organization's mini-parliament had "extended" chances for peace by five weeks when it decided Sunday to delay a declaration of statehood for at least two months.

"We have agreed to pursue the negotiations so neither the American side nor the Israeli side would accuse us of walking away from peace," Arafat told reporters in Gaza in his first comments since the decision.

"As you know, there was an American request to give a five-week chance for the negotiations, and we have given this period," he added.

The mini-parliament, the Palestinian Central Council, said it would meet sometime before November 15 to decide when to make the declaration Arafat had vowed to make as early as September 13.

November 15 is the anniversary of a declaration of statehood Arafat made from exile in Algiers in 1988, before he became the Palestinian president.

Arafat said the Palestinians remained committed to the peace process and to U.N. resolutions that support their aspirations.

"(The resolutions) meant the establishment of our state, our homeland on Palestinian land occupied in 1967 including and especially holy Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state, whether someone likes it or not," he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called the PCC's decision positive. Sounding downbeat in recent days about the chances for a deal, Barak has insisted the Palestinians have to show further flexibility.

"I imagine the negotiations will go on. I wouldn't give the chances of success more than 50-50, perhaps even a little less," said Barak.

Returning from a failed peace bid at the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York, the Israeli leader showed signs of turning from peacemaking with the Palestinians to focus on an ambitious social agenda if Arafat remained unyielding.

Arafat, in Gaza, accused Barak of sabotaging a 15-day U.S.-hosted peace summit in Camp David last July by inventing the main stumbling block of the fate of Jerusalem.

"He avoided reaching (achievements) in Camp David, then he invented (the problem of) al-Haram al-Sharif," Arafat said, referring to a site in East Jerusalem sacred to Muslims and Jews which lies at the heart of the emotive Jerusalem issue.

Israel calls Jerusalem its "eternal, indivisible capital." But Palestinians want East Jerusalem -- seized by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed -- for the capital of their future state.

Barak said he expected to know for sure in "coming weeks" if a deal could be reached. Asked how much time he would give Arafat, he said: "I'm not using a stopwatch."

Arafat said the round of talks sponsored by the United States would witness participation by "Egypt, some Arab brothers and Europe."

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