Military

DATE=10/5/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-282722

TITLE=E-U/MIDEAST (L-ONLY)

BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON

DATELINE=BRUSSELS

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met in Brussels Monday under the auspices of the Belgian government, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. Neither man spoke with reporters after their 75-minute meeting. V-O-A correspondent Roger Wilkison reports the E-U is trying to get Mideast peace dialogue to resume, but Mr. Peres says meetings alone do not solve the region's underlying problems.

TEXT: Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt is behind the latest push to increase the E-U's diplomatic role in helping to re-start Middle East peace talks. Mr. Verhofstadt wants Mr. Arafat and Mr. Peres to agree to a series of reciprocal security steps they hope can lead to a resumption of negotiations. But there is little optimism that anything came out of Monday's meeting.

There have been no substantive talks between Israel and the Palestinians since late September, when the two sides agreed to uphold a cease-fire that has yet to take hold. Mr. Arafat and Mr. Peres had a brief encounter two days ago on the Spanish island of Majorca but held no formal negotiations. Mr. Peres told reporters Monday that the vast differences between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority cannot be solved just because the two sides hold a meeting.

The two Middle Eastern leaders are in Brussels to take part in a conference of E-U foreign ministers and their counterparts from 12 Mediterranean nations. Despite the pressure from the E-U to get the two sides to talk, Mr. Peres said it is hard to sit down with the Palestinian leader after an incident Sunday in Jerusalem, where a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis and wounded several others before being shot dead by Israeli security forces.

Israel's position is that all violence must stop before it will sit down again with the Palestinians. The Palestinians, on the other hand, argue that Israeli occupation of their land is the cause of a 13-month-old uprising that has led to violent reprisals by Israel.

The E-U, in conjunction with the United States, is calling for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian towns it occupied last month after Palestinian extremists killed an Israeli cabinet minister. Washington and Brussels are pressing the Palestinians to do more to rein in such extremists and prevent attacks on Israeli civilians.

Diplomats in Brussels say the E-U's ambitions of playing a bigger role in Middle East peace-making are not likely to prosper because Israel sees the Europeans as being too ready to accommodate the Palestinians. The diplomats say the only voice Israel listens to is that of the United States. (Signed)

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