BEIRUT, JERUSALEM, (Islamweb & News Agencies)-Preparations for holding an Arab summit on Wednesday are now in full swing as foreign ministers begin their preparatory ministerial session in the Lebanese capital Monday. The focus of the summit meeting will be the Saudi peace plan for the Middle East which calls for an end to the Israel-Arab conflict in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from disputed territories. According to Saudi press reports yesterday Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah believes his peace overture to Israel has been rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Abdullah's remarks came during a meeting in the Red Sea port of Jeddah Saturday with participants of a symposium on Islam. The crown prince will present his initiative to end the almost 55-year Mideast crisis at the Beirut summit. Almost all the league's 22 members have welcomed the proposal, which offers Israel peace and normal relations with its neighbors in exchange for full withdrawal from areas Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war. Sharon, in an interview published Saturday in The Washington Post, said he was interested in the Saudi initiative but that Israel's security would be threatened if it withdrew to 1967 borders. Sharon told the Post he was ready to talk with the Saudis, but the Saudis have said negotiations should only involve Israel and the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Lebanese. Meanwhile, Sharon told his Cabinet yesterday that he would like to go to the Beirut summit to explain the Israeli position on the Mideast conflict. Arab commentators say Sharon will have to be more serious than that if he wants his views to be listened to.
In the occupied territories, and, in an undisclosed location, U.S.-led truce talks ended without an agreement late Sunday but both Israelis and Palestinians said they would meet again, focusing on new American proposals aimed at bridging their differences and halting 18 months of bloodshed. No details of the U.S. proposals were made public. But an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said those proposals were constructive. Sunday's late night meeting was Zinni's latest attempt to reach a cease-fire before the all important Arab summit that starts in the Lebanese capital Wednesday. The Arab summit will focus heavily on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Intifadha, uprising, confrontations against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories meanwhile continue unabated despite the cease-fire efforts.
Meanwhile, violence flared on, with Israeli occupation troops killing four unidentified armed infiltrators from Jordan and four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Two Israelis were shot dead in separate incidents in the West Bank. Palestinian Resistance men ambushed a bus, killing a Jewish settler. Another Jewish settler was shot dead while driving his car.
Early on Monday Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers entered a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. (Read photo caption)
A Palestinian hospital official said one local Palestinian man was killed and at least two wounded during the incursion as bulldozers, under covering fire from tank machineguns, demolished buildings in the Brazil refugee camp.

PHOTO CAPTION:
An Israeli armored personnel carrier takes up a position near the West Bank city of Ramallah March 24, 2002. Arab leaders set to meet in Lebanon plan to offer Israel peace in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands and a 'just solution' for Palestinian refugees, according to a draft text. Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Reuters
- Mar 24 3:53 PM ET