Palestinians, Israel voice frustration over talks

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israel and the Palestinians expressed growing frustration on Friday at the lack of progress towards a peace deal to end 52 years of conflict.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said by telephone he would meet Israeli negotiator Gilad Sher for more talks on Friday but declined to give any details.

Another senior Palestinian official said talks were proving easier with the United States, which is trying to mediate a peace agreement, than with Israel.

"In fact the negotiations are going on with the United States, not with Israel, because negotiations with Israel are going round in an empty circle," Nabil Abu Rdaineh, an aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, told Reuters.

Israeli cabinet minister Yossi Beilin, in a newspaper interview published on Friday, regretted both the lack of progress and the lack of understanding between the two sides.

"There is not much to talk about, and we have not solved many points. On the one hand there is the difficulty of solving the Jerusalem issue. But on the other hand, no other problem has been totally solved," he told the Jerusalem Post.

"What is a little bit frustrating is that you see a situation whereby an understanding reached at during the night is conducive to a misunderstanding the next morning."

Disagreement over the future of Jerusalem has proved the greatest obstacle to a peace deal, but differences in the two sides' interpretations of what has been said during the negotiations have also proved a problem.

Palestinians look to the Americans

The Palestinians expect the United States to present a new bridging proposal in the next few days. But Israel's acting foreign minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, said on Thursday there was no certainty Washington would come up with new suggestions.

U.S. President Bill Clinton hosted a 15-day summit in July between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak which ended without an agreement, and he hopes to secure a deal before the next American president takes office in January.

Barak hopes to conclude a peace agreement in the next few weeks because he is expected to face a no-confidence vote in parliament at the end of October following criticism that he has made too many concessions to the Palestinians.

Beilin made clear Israel was still looking to Arafat to make the next move, saying: "He can take the bold decisions, just as Barak can take the bold decisions."

A key problem remains control of the holy site in Jerusalem's old city which Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif or the Noble Sanctuary, and is known by Jews as Temple Mount.

Israeli newspapers say Washington is likely to propose granting the United Nations custodianship over the sacred site, but the Palestinians have said they will accept nothing short of sovereignty over all of Arab East Jerusalem.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the independent Palestinian state they plan to declare.

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