The American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said that Israel and the Palestinians will hold intensive talks in the United States from next week to try to work out a framework for a final peace. She was speaking during a joint news conference with the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the Palestinian-ruled West Bank city of Ramallah. Ms Albright met the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak yesterday and is due to meet him again before she departs the Middle East.
