[UN Chief meets Israeli and Palestinian
leaders. Read photo caption below.]

Annan to Meet Palestinians, Israelis on Truce

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan meets Palestinian and Israeli leaders on Saturday to help cement a shaky U.S.-brokered cease-fire to end eight months of bloodshed.
Annan was due to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem, three days after they agreed to a cease-fire now threatened by shooting and mortar attacks.
``I am glad to see that there is now a cease-fire in place between the Israelis and the Palestinians,'' said Annan.
``But it will not last unless it is seen by both sides as a part of the broader political negotiations,'' he told reporters in Beirut, where he met Lebanese leaders on Friday as a part of a week-long Middle East tour.
As required by the truce, brokered by U.S. CIA Director George Tenet, Israel has begun to ease its crippling blockade on Palestinian areas and withdraw troops from positions taken since the revolt erupted in September after peace talks stalled.
The Palestinian Authority is required to arrest militants, collect illegal arms, including mortars, shut down bomb factories and prevent arms smuggling.
But after security talks on Friday, the two sides were quick to accuse each other of violating the cease-fire, and Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire in Gaza.
An American diplomat called the talks ``serious and constructive'' and said they would continue.
Since the truce took effect at noon GMT on Wednesday, two Palestinians and an Israeli have been killed.
A study presented by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to EU leaders said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had deteriorated to the point where it was more urgent to avert a war than to revive stalemated peace talks.
SITUATION FRAUGHT WITH DANGERS
Solana said the Middle East situation was fraught with dangers for Israel's security, for the future of the Palestinians, and for regional stability.
``The situation on the ground has deteriorated to the point that it has become very difficult to set out a political framework and a timescale for the resumption of peace negotiations,'' the report obtained by Reuters said.
``Averting the possibility of war has taken precedence over resuming the peace process,'' it said.
A Palestinian security official said another meeting would be held on Sunday to nail down a timetable for Israel to lift its closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel said security concerns forced it to clamp down at the start of the revolt.
``The Israelis insisted on the arrests (of militants). We replied that we will not carry out the arrests as long as Israel continues to violate the cease-fire plan,'' he told Reuters.
The Palestinians say the blockade is collective punishment.
The Fatah Central Committee, Arafat's mainstream faction, called on the ``grassroots'' to allow security forces to ``uphold the cease-fire which is a Palestinian Authority commitment...and to implement the Tenet plan.''
``The central committee demands from the Israeli side a halt to its aggression, especially attacks by settlers, and to lift the closure,'' Fatah said in the statement released after the committee held a meeting chaired by Arafat.
Israeli army chief Shaul Mofaz said Israel eased the blockade, withdrew tanks and gave soldiers new stricter firing orders, but he said the Palestinians were not reciprocating.
``It is not a passing grade, but I wouldn't say it (the truce) is a failure,'' Mofaz told Israel Channel One television. ''I am not yet seeing...a real effort (by the Palestinians), not in the intention, not in the activity, in the efforts or the results.''
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PHOTO CAPTION

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will meet with Palestinian and Israeli leaders June 16, 2001 to help cement a shaky U.S.-brokered cease-fire aimed at ending eight months of bloodshed. Annan is seen arriving at Beirut airport June 15. (Aziz Taher/Reuters)
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