Bangla2000 | International News - Has keeping fingers crossed brought good luck?

President Clinton crosses his fingers as he and his daughter Chelsea walk from the White House enrounte back to Camp David Sunday, July 23, 2000, in Washington. Hurrying back from an abbreviated trip to Asia, President Clinton was rejoining troubled Middle East talks at Camp David on Sunday even as American mediators spoke of the possibility of failure. "We might reach a deal; we might not,'' a summit spokesman said. (AP Photo)

THURMONT, Maryland (AP) - Offering a glimmer of hope after two grueling weeks of Mideast peace talks at Camp David, the White House indicated that Israel and the Palestinians could be making "some" progress toward resolving their bitter disputes.

The assessment came as Clinton plunged into intensive, hands-on mediation following a four-day trip to Japan, keeping long, late-night hours in an effort to shepherd the two sides toward a historic accord.

"They are trying to find areas of agreement," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters on Monday, the 14th day of talks at the secluded presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland. "They have probably found some."

For the most part, the summit's American hosts have avoided any characterization of the substance of the talks, other than to note how difficult and divisive the issues are.

The main point of dispute is Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital. Also on the table is the fate of several million Palestinian refugees and the boundaries of a future Palestinian state.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was stepping in as lead mediator again Tuesday, with Clinton planning a daylong absence to attend a memorial service in Arkansas for Diane Blair, a University of Arkansas political science professor and a close friend who died of cancer.

Albright twice has taken the reins at the summit, most recently while Clinton attended an economic summit on Okinawa. She filled in for him one day during the first week as well.

After meeting until 5 a.m. Monday with delegates from both sides, Clinton headed into a fresh round of talks in the evening. Asked if the negotiators might pull another all-nighter, Lockhart said: "It's certainly possible."

"I think everyone is feeling the effect of some late nights, but they're still at it," he added.

Clinton has met with both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat since his return - he met with Arafat again Monday evening - but most of his time has been devoted to joint sessions with negotiators from both sides.

In directly engaging the delegates, Clinton echoed the type of detail-heavy encounters that President Jimmy Carter had with negotiating teams at the first Camp David summit, in 1978. That watershed gathering set Israel and Egypt on the road to peace.

Lockhart told reporters that as long as Clinton thinks "discussions are substantive and have the potential of leading to an agreement, he will remain here, and keep the parties here."

The parties, themselves, though, were reluctant to commit to open-ended talks. An Israeli Cabinet minister who is serving as one of his country's negotiators said it should be clear soon whether it was worthwhile to keep talking.

"I think within 24 hours we will know if we have gone forward or sideways," Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Israel's transportation minister, told Israel's Channel Two from inside Camp David.

The Palestinians' frequent spokeswoman, Hanan Ashrawi, predicted the two sides could achieve only an interim accord, "either some kind of vague framework or damage control to prevent a total breakdown."

Barak, who has been under constant pressure from right-wing political opponents at home, got a new reminder Tuesday of the battle that could await him if he makes sweeping concessions to the Palestinians.

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a rare news conference broadcast live in prime time on both Israeli TV channels, said he wanted to prevent a "ripping apart" of Israeli society "that could happen in the next few days."

"What we hear from most of the reports out of Camp David does not answer our hopes," Netanyahu said, demanding that Barak reject any deal that would call for sharing sovereignty over Jerusalem with the Palestinians.

On a U.S. political matter, Lockhart was asked whether the Camp David talks could overlap with next week's Republican national convention, where Texas Gov. George W. Bush will be nominated as the Republican presidential candidate.

"I don't think there's a sense that those two things are going to collide," he said. "Governor Bush has been properly supportive of the president and his efforts, so I don't think on either side there's an attempt to play politics with this."

State Department's Mideast summit home page: http://www.state.gov/www/regions/nea/cdavid-summit.html