Arafat says he's ready for marathon talks with Israel

Cairo meeting yields little progress

In this story: 'Exerting every effort' Palestinian group says it killed TV chief Negotiators to discuss Clinton plan 'Get used to killings' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Thursday he was ready for marathon peace talks proposed by Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami.

"We suggested that we go back to talks, for example like the Taba talks that enabled us, as you remember, to reach a lot of important solutions with (Yitzhak) Rabin and (Shimon) Peres," Arafat said in Cairo, Egypt.

The Palestinian leader, who had hastily arranged talks with Ben-Ami in Cairo on Wednesday night, said the Israelis had told him they would think about his suggestion.

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Arafat was apparently referring to round-the-clock talks held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba in 1995 to clinch an interim peace deal. The late Rabin was Israel's prime minister at the time. Peres was foreign minister.

On his return to Gaza, Arafat responded positively when asked about Ben-Ami's proposal for intensive negotiations to try to clinch a last-ditch deal in the three weeks before an Israeli prime ministerial election on February 6.

"We agreed to that, and we have informed the co-sponsors of the peace process that we are willing to do this," he told reporters. "But as you know the negotiations are continuing, and there has been no result so far."

The co-sponsors of the peace process launched at the 1991 Madrid conference are the United States and Russia.

Arafat said the Palestinians remained committed to what was agreed at a U.S.-brokered summit convened in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in October to try to halt the wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence that erupted in late September.

Nearly 400 people have died in the fighting. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says 339 of those killed so far were Palestinians. The Israel Defense Forces says 44 were Israeli Jews and 13 were Israeli Arabs.

'Exerting every effort'

"We are exerting every effort to remain committed to what we agreed upon in the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement, and we hope that the Israeli side will do the same thing," Arafat told reporters on his return to Gaza.

He accused Israel of failing to abide by the accord. "As you see, the cities, the villages, the camps are still under siege and there is military escalation," Arafat declared.

Asked if he saw any chance for an agreement with Israel soon, he said: "We hope so, but we need international support to push the peace process forward and preserve it."

Arafat met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who had set up the Palestinian leader's meeting with Ben-Ami late Wednesday.

Ben-Ami said Thursday it was "not impossible" to reach a deal before Israel's election, in which polls suggest right-winger Ariel Sharon will defeat Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

"It's possible, not impossible," Ben-Ami told Israel's Army Radio. "It's an effort to climb to the summit if the prime minister is prepared to undertake it."

Ben-Ami described his talks with Arafat as "deep and detailed." Israel Radio said there had been no breakthrough.

U.S. President Bill Clinton is preparing to leave office on Saturday with no peace deal to reward his mediation efforts.

Incoming U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday the new administration of President-elect George W. Bush would take a wait-and-see approach until the Israeli election is over. (Powell's remarks at confirmation hearings.)

Palestinian group says it killed TV chief

Meanwhile, a Palestinian group responsible for attacks against Israeli targets in Gaza and the West Bank said it gunned down the head of Palestinian television on Wednesday in a war against corrupt Palestinian Authority officials.

"One of our units has executed the ruling of the people against ... Hisham Mikki," the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade said in a statement faxed to Reuters in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian leadership had initially accused Israeli "collaborators" of killing Mikki. This was swiftly denied by Israel, and Palestinian sources later conceded that the assassination could have been a settling of scores.

Negotiators to discuss Clinton plan

Israeli sources said Ben-Ami and Barak's chief of staff, Gilead Sher, would meet Palestinian negotiators Ahmed Korei and Saeb Erakat on Thursday afternoon at an undisclosed location in Jerusalem to continue discussions on Clinton's peace blueprint.

Palestinian negotiators said the sides were still far apart on the key issues such as the future status of Jerusalem.

"I don't think that we can reach any sort of agreement before January 20 or for that matter February 6," Erakat told Reuters.

He said that if Sharon become prime minister, it would be "a recipe for war and disaster."

'Get used to killings'

Senior Palestinian official Ahmed Abdel-Rahman said on Thursday the bloodshed would continue until Israel ended its occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

"They (Israel) had better get used to the killings as long as there is an occupation," he told reporters. "As long as there is occupation, the intifada (uprising) will continue."

Barak appealed to Israelis in a campaign advertisement broadcast on television and radio to give him another chance to forge a deal before the window of opportunity closed.

"When I sit with Arafat, and it isn't great fun, I do it because I know that we now have a window of opportunity with a strong Israel and the United States as a fair mediator," Barak said.

Barak's re-election hopes were dealt another blow after Dan Meridor, a leading politician identified with the center-right and a member of the Center party, said he would back Sharon in the February vote.

Sharon has tried to soften his image by presenting himself as a grandfatherly figure in campaign advertisements under a banner pledging to continue peacemaking efforts.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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