Sides seek settlement solution in Mideast talks

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT - Israeli and Palestinian leaders met at this Red Sea resort yesterday for their second round of direct talks, tackling for the first time some of the toughest "core issues" dividing the parties as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton scrambled to keep the talks from collapsing over the issue of renewed Israeli settlement construction.

No resolution of that impasse appeared to have been found during two hours of discussions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said both men appeared interested in finding a solution to the settlement issue.

An Israeli official, also speaking anonymously, said: "We want the process to work, and the goal is to keep the process going. Between zero and the tens of thousands of housing units that are in the pipeline, there are a variety of options."

Netanyahu and Abbas were to continue the talks Wednesday in Jerusalem, along with Clinton and George J. Mitchell, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East.

Mitchell, briefing reporters with only sparse details after the initial conversation of 1 hour 40 minutes, emphasized that for the first time in these talks, Netanyahu and Abbas have begun to talk about the core issues dividing them, such as borders, security, the status of Jerusalem and the right of Palestinians who had fled during the 1948 war to return to their homes.

His remarks were significant because the former Senate majority leader, who is known to choose his words carefully, had said after the first set of talks in Washington that such core issues had not been broached in a substantive fashion. Palestinian officials have indicated they would like to discuss borders first, while Israel officials appear more keen to discuss security.