Germany's Fischer to push for Middle East truce
( 2001-08-21 11:00 ) (7 )

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer plays mediator in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday aimed at fostering a ceasefire after almost 11 months of fighting.

He meets Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah in the morning and will have talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem later.

It was not clear whether Fischer would present Arafat with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres's latest proposals for kick-starting an internationally backed truce-to-talks blueprint that has never taken effect. Fischer and Peres declined to discuss the proposals at a joint news conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, but Israeli media reports say Peres is pushing for a ceasefire that would come into force in stages.

Under the reported plan, a truce would be implemented in areas where there is little violence, while hotspots of Israeli-Palestinian fighting would be left until last.

"We are very interested in the new ideas of Foreign Minister Peres. We think this is a situation where we need creative new ideas," Fischer said, adding that unless the sides overcame their differences, "we will see further tragedies". UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern during an official visit to Oslo, the Norwegian city that gave birth to interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals, that the fighting could engulf the entire Middle East if it is not stopped.

"It is dangerous, it is raising tensions in the region and if we do not take concrete steps to contain it, it may spread to other parts of the region and beyond," he said.

FISCHER PLAYS ROLE IN MIDEAST CONFLICT

Fischer was in Israel in June when 21 people were killed in a suicide bombing by the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas at a Tel Aviv discotheque and he helped secure a US-backed truce that never took hold.

His role after the June bombing won him the respect of the Jewish state, which has traditionally been wary of the involvement of European Union countries in the conflict.

Israel generally prefers for its main ally, the United States, to take a front seat in mediation efforts.

On Monday, the United States opposed a Palestinian drive for UN Security Council backing for the deployment of international observers in the region, again derailing the effort.

Gunshots echoed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip late on Monday. Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire in at least half a dozen places.

Palestinian security officials said one of the battles erupted after Israeli armoured vehicles approached a Palestinian-ruled area in southern Gaza. The Israeli army said its troops came under gun and grenade attack in the area.

Palestinian hospital officials said Israeli gunfire wounded seven Palestinians in another incident nearby.

Fischer, who arrived on Monday on a three-day visit, said the sides should use the recommendations of former US Senator George Mitchell's committee into the violence as a means to end the fighting.

More than 520 Palestinians and nearly 150 Israelis have been killed since peace talks came unstuck last September.

"With the Mitchell report...we have a bridge we should use, both sides, and we want to find ways to overcome this blockade otherwise we will see further tragedies," Fischer said.

"This standstill of the situation, leads to violence and terrible terror attacks...This must be brought to an end. We must come back to the road of negotiations."

Israel's Foreign Ministry said Peres warned Fischer about "the danger of deterioration in the north" where Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas have set up a checkpoint just hundreds of metres (yards) from Israeli soldiers in a village that straddles the Lebanese-Israeli border.