Israelis and Palestinians voiced a hope their first round of high-level talks in many months would help to ease 21 months of violence and eventually clear the way for making Middle East peace.
While peace "looks distant at this time, it seems to me that maybe some type of window has been opened," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said after his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, launched the high-level talks with Palestinians.
Both sides said two days of meetings between the dovish Peres and Palestinian officials, including new Interior Minister Abdel-Razak al-Yehiyeh, were not peace negotiations and brought no major breakthroughs.
But they agreed to continue their meetings to try to end the bloodshed. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said their talks covered a broad range of topics, including political, economic and security issues.
"We hope that the ultimate end result is not just the mere fact that we are meeting but that we can do something...that we can revive the peace process," Erekat said after meeting Peres in Jerusalem.
"The meeting was good. Both sides recognized the importance of continuing to talk," Peres' office said.
Underscoring the hardships, a Palestinian gunman fired at Israeli police in Jerusalem, wounding one officer and killing a Palestinian bystander in an ensuing shootout. Police said they later caught the assailant.
Palestinian sources said Israeli forces killed a West Bank militant, but Israel denied any knowledge of the incident.
BUSH CALLS SHARON, SAUDI
Sharon's government has called for the removal of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and previously cut off ties to the Palestinian Authority after a wave of suicide bombings.
But the right-wing Israeli leader agreed to resume contacts with two new Palestinian cabinet ministers appointed by Arafat as part of an overhaul of his Authority urged by the United States.
The White House on Tuesday said President Bush had spoken by telephone to Sharon and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, whose country has offered a regional peace blueprint, and urged them both to pursue peace, but gave no details.
Political sources said Israel had agreed to set up a committee to discuss the matters raised during the talks and that it would study the possibility of releasing Palestinian funds held in Israeli state coffers since the violence began.
Such a move would be part of measures to ease the hardships to Palestinians from Israeli army blockades, curfews and the military reoccupation of Palestinian-ruled cities in the West Bank which Israel says is needed to block suicide bombers.
Israel swore in a new army chief of staff, Moshe Yaalon. But no change of direction was expected in Israel's tough army tactics to quell the Palestinian uprising that erupted against Israel's occupation in September 2000.
Israel reoccupied seven of the eight Palestinian-ruled cities in the West Bank after two Palestinian suicide bombings killed 26 Israelis in Jerusalem last month.
The Palestinian death toll has been risen in a series of violent incidents. But there has not been a suicide bombing in Israel for more than two weeks.
At least 1,437 Palestinians and 548 Israelis have been killed since the uprising flared after peace talks froze.
(China Daily July 10, 2002)
