Mideast talks end with call for U.S. help

Peres and Arafat talked for three hours

LISBON, Portugal (CNN) -- Calls for European monitors and American implementation of the latest mideast cease-fire proposals continued in Lisbon on Saturday, a day after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met for three hours Friday night.

Arafat departed Lisbon on Saturday morning and Peres will leave later in the day. "I think it was a good occasion to exchange views informally in a rather agreeable atmosphere," Peres said of his dinner meeting with the Palestinian leader.

The Israeli foreign minister said the plan should be put into force "without any reductions or additions or deviations ... because any attempt to change will kill the plan and will kill the chance for peace."

Arafat and Peres shook hands before addressing the conference marking the 50th anniversary of the Socialist International on Saturday. The organisation groups labour and socialist parties from around the world.

Both sides pledged to honor Mitchell report

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"The most important thing is to follow up what has been agreed upon," Arafat said before the two met on Friday. "And we are following and I have declared our approval for the Mitchell report, for the Egyptian and Jordanian initiative, for the declaration which had been declared after the meeting between President Bush and the European leadership in Sweden recently."

The Mitchell Committee report, which both sides have pledged to honor, calls for the Palestinians to crack down on terrorism and for the Israelis to freeze settlement activities.

Both sides agreed in principle to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's call Thursday for seven straight days without violence -- to be followed by a six-week cooling off period when the two sides would begin to implement confidence building measures. But it is not clear when that week would begin.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat called on the Americans to implement the Mitchell report in the next five days.

"If we don't see the timeline introduced by the Americans for the implementation of the Mitchell Report ... in the next five days, I believe we're going to be in deep trouble," he told CNN on Saturday.