President Bill Clinton in his final days in office brokered negotiations that yielded a final settlement offer from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that ceded large portions of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians, but Arafat effectively rejected it.

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And on key international issues such as UN sanctions on Iran, a "strategic partnership" with Europe, Georgia's future as an independent conduit for central Asian oil and gas, and a final settlement in Kosovo and the Balkans, European diplomats say Russia's positive cooperation is essential.

CNN: Highlights from the world's press

Mr Netanyahu has long championed settlements, but has also said he would be prepared to make "painful concessions" - alluding to some settlement withdrawals - in a final peace agreement with the Palestinians.

BBC: Middle East

It reached a final settlement with the department in September and with the four other authorities in December.

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Rather, he would explain in general terms Israel's thinking on a final settlement.

ECONOMIST: Israel

Like Mr Netanyahu, Mr Barak would have liked to skip the unfinished business left over from the interim agreement, including the withdrawal prescribed at the Wye summit in Maryland last October, and go straight to negotiating a final settlement with Mr Arafat.

ECONOMIST: Barak��s chance

In the approach to this month's meeting, Israeli negotiators floated Mr Barak's blueprint of a final settlement with the Palestinians.

ECONOMIST: Palestinians and Israel

The two sides promised, when they signed the Oslo peace agreement in 1993, that the status of Jerusalem would stay unchanged until they negotiated its future as part of a final settlement.

ECONOMIST: Stretching Jerusalem

But Binyamin Netanyahu's proposal to accelerate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process so that, with American help, a final settlement could be conjured up within six months is just not credible, at least in its current form and under present conditions.

ECONOMIST: Faster towards what? | The