The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, has reached agreement with the hardline Opposition leader Ariel Sharon, on certain conditions for the formation of a National Emergency Government. An Israeli spokesman said that an understanding on four out of six points were resolved with the final points being discussed at a possible meeting between both men tomorrow.
US President Bill Clinton said earlier that violence in the Middle East must abate before peace talks could resume. Speaking to journalists at the White House, the President said that he was frustrated and very disturbed at renewed Israeli-Palestinian violence. Last week the White House said that President Clinton intended to invite Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to the United States for separate talks. Mr Clinton insisted, however, that there would be no talks while violence raged.
Four Palestinians were killed and almost 200 wounded during the day in clashes with Israeli troops on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On the West Bank, Palestinians desecrated a synagogue with swastikas, as members of the militant Hamas organisation called for a wave of suicide bomb attacks inside Israel. Tonight the Israeli army was reported to have deployed helicopter gunships to fire on Palestinian gunmen who attacked a Jewish settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
