U.S.: No Mideast protection force without Israel's OK

Barak 'lowers expectations' for Washington visit

In this story: Holbrooke: 'Can't have it both ways' Three Palestinians and an Israeli soldier killed RELATED STORIES, SITES

CNN Correspondent Fionnuala Sweeney contributed to this report

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- U.S. officials rejected Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's appeal on Friday for an international protection force to buffer the Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle East, arguing that such a plan must have Israeli approval first.

Arafat appeared before the U.N. Security Council on Friday to press his case for a force to stop seven weeks of ugly violence in the Mideast, while in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak dampened hopes for Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects.

"I would like to lower all our expectations," said Barak, who is to travel to the United States for a meeting with U.S. President Bill Clinton on Sunday. "I don't expect that the talks in Washington will lead to a renewal of negotiations."

VIDEO CNN's Brian Palmer reports on Yasser Arafat's bid for U.N. intervention Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Palestinians say the street is calling the shots, putting pressure on leaders. CNN's Christiane Amanpour explains (November 10) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     MESSAGE BOARD Mideast peace

Arafat's push for a protection force met with a cool reception during his meeting with Clinton on Thursday. The White House, citing Barak's refusal to consider such a force, said the two sides should concentrate on what they share in common rather than their differences.

But Arafat said there was precedent for deployment. He cited as examples instances where forces have been used as a buffer between Israel and neighboring countries.

"Between Israel and Egypt there is an international force," he said. "Between Lebanon and Israel there is an international force. Between Israel and Syria there is an international force."

Holbrooke: 'Can't have it both ways'

The Palestinian Authority president met behind closed doors with the U.N. Security Council on Friday to discuss the matter before returning to the Middle East.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke told reporters waiting outside the meeting that the United States would not support the Palestinian proposal "unless and until it is supported by both parties in whatever form emerges."

Without Israeli input, Holbrooke said, the proposal was one-sided.

"If people are serious about using the U.N. in this part of the world to resolve conflict ... then it should not also be used as a device for propaganda or one-sided resolutions," he said. "You can't have it both ways."

Holbrooke, who brokered the Bosnian peace accord in 1995, said flatly that the Palestinians and Israelis "have to live together in that land."

"Just like in the Balkans," he said, "they're either going to have to live together or keep killing each other."

Holbrooke said Israel's U.N. ambassador also addressed the Security Council, giving its members their first chance to hear firsthand the Israeli view on the proposed protection force.

As a permanent member of the Security Council, the United States has the power to veto any resolution, which would give it the power to block the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force.

Both Israelis and Palestinians have accepted the United States as a mediator in the attempts to reach a settlement between them.

Three Palestinians and an Israeli soldier killed

While the diplomatic channels churned at the U.N., bitter fighting between Palestinians and Israeli security forces entered a seventh week with three Palestinians and an Israeli soldier killed in Gaza and West Bank battles.

The death count in the fighting reached 206 people -- 174 Palestinians and 32 Israelis, of whom at least 13 were Israeli Arabs.

Two Palestinians died on Friday in Gaza and a third in the West Bank, according to Palestinian hospital officials. The Israeli soldier was critically injured outside Rachel's Tomb in the West Bank and later died of his wounds.

More fighting was reported near Ramallah, also in the West Bank, and an explosion just outside Jerusalem's Old City slightly wounded an Israeli policeman.

Friday's confrontations followed the funeral of Hussein Abayat, a local Palestinian leader killed in an Israeli rocket attack on Thursday.

Members of Arafat's Fatah party vowed retaliation on Israel for Abayat's death, which they called an assassination.

Militant Palestinians had declared Friday another "day of rage," and called the attack an "act of terrorism." Two Palestinian women bystanders were also killed in the attack and eight people were wounded.

Israel claimed Abayat was a mastermind of violent attacks against Israelis in the West Bank. The vehicle Abayat was riding in, Israel said, was targeted because Israel Defense Forces (IDF) identified it as the source of several shootings in the area.

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