HIGHLIGHTS: Haim Ramon Presents Text of Palestinian Ceasefire Call to Knesset Defense Committee||UN Security Council Resumes Mideast Discussions Behind Closed Doors|||King Abdullah II of Jordan & Shimon Peres to Meet in Washington||Jordan Pushes for Detailed Peace Work Plan||Peres Backs Calls for International Mideast Conference Soon|| STORY: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said he is pushing for a ceasefire among Resistance factions despite last week's devastating Israeli air raid on Gaza.

The "peace process is the only way forward ... to finish the Israeli occupation and have a Palestinian state far from violence, far from state terrorism, bloodshed and far from bombings," Arafat said after meeting US Civil Rights Leader, Jesse Jackson in Ramallah.

He said the Palestinians were still trying to patch together a ceasefire among the Resistance groups that have been attacking Israel throughout the 22-month Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation.

"We reached that agreement but the agreement was completely destroyed by an F-16 attack in Gaza. But we'll continue our efforts regarding this issue," he said.

Palestinian officials said the air raid derailed talks between armed elements of Arafat's Fatah movement and Resistance groups like Hamas to secure a unilateral ceasefire.

HAIM RAMON UNVEILS TEXT OF PALESTINIAN CEASEFIRE CALL TO KNESSET DEFENCE COMMITTEE

That claim was lent weight by the head of the Israeli parliament's foreign and defense committee, Labour deputy Haim Ramon, who presented the committee with a text of a ceasefire call that, he said, armed groups within Arafat's Fatah party had been about to issue when Israel launched the internationally condemned air raid.

The unsigned document presented by Ramon, a rival to Labour leader Binyamin Ben Eliezer who green-lighted the Gaza attack, appealed to all armed groups to halt attacks on Israeli civilians, including in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

It called on armed groups from Fatah and other movements, including Hamas, to end the attacks without renouncing the right to fight the Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas.

Ramon said he would be "astonished" that the army could have had such information and not passed it on to the government, saying it would have justified canceling the raid.

The bombing last Monday triggered calls for revenge from all the main Palestinian armed factions at a time when contacts were being resumed between the two sides.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL CONTINUES MIDEAST DISCUSSIONS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

In New York, talks at the UN Security Council, held at the request of Arab nations following the Israeli missile attack on the Gaza Strip, continued behind closed doors with no new developments.

"We had further discussions to see whether there was any progress on the draft the Arab group put down on Friday afternoon. That job did make further progress," said Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's UN ambassador and current head of the Security Council.

If necessary, the talks would continue Tuesday, he added.

Diplomatic sources suggested Monday that the Arab groups proposed resolution, though judged to be moderate in its tone, was unlikely to win enough support to be formally presented to the Security Council.

KING ABDALLA & PERES MEET IN WASHINGTON

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Jordan's King Abdullah II are to meet privately on the fringes of a development conference in the United States this week, Israeli officials said.

Peres and the king are to meet in the western US ski resort of Aspen, Colorado on Tuesday on the sidelines of Fortune magazine's Brainstorm 2002 meeting of top thinkers and political leaders.

The planned meeting comes amid a flurry of international diplomacy over violence in the Middle East, and as Amman accused Israel of restricting West Bank Palestinians from entering Jordan.

No details of the meeting's agenda were immediately available.

The Brainstorm 2001 conference united top statesman and policymakers including former US president Bill Clinton and his onetime secretary of state Madeleine Albright.

Both Peres and King Abdullah, who on Monday met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London to discuss progress in the troubled Middle East peace process, headed to Washington for talks with top US officials.

JORDAN PUSHES FOR DETAILED PEACE WORK PLAN Jordan's foreign minister, laying ground for a Washington visit this week by King Abdullah, pressed the United States on Monday to agree on a detailed work plan for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

The foreign minister, Marwan al-Muasher, said the plan should include creation of a monitoring group to ensure both sides fulfill their pledges.

The American side is "receptive to the idea (of a monitoring group but) I can't tell you that we have agreed on anything," Muasher told reporters after meeting Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

But State Department deputy spokesman Phillip Reeker played down the monitoring group idea, which has been controversial with Israel.

Muasher said to move this process forward, "we are of the firm belief we need to take logical step forward, which is to agree on a detailed work plan from now until mid-2005."

Muasher declined to suggest who might be part of the monitoring group but he said the work plan would encourage Israelis and Palestinians to support a peace agreement because they would be able to see "exactly what they are getting."

Secretary of State Colin Powell, on a trip to Asia, voiced optimism about high-level talks next month between U.S. and Palestinian officials in Washington.

PERES BACKS CONVENING MIDEAST CONFERENCE QUICKLY

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres meanwhile backed the speedy organization of an international conference on Middle East peace that would bring Arab, EU and US officials to the negotiating table.

Peres said conference invitees should include Israel, the Palestinians, the so-called diplomatic "quartet" -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- as well as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking to journalists after meeting French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, Peres did not rule out inviting other Arab nations to the conference.

Earlier, after talks with French President Jacques Chirac, Peres said he backed Chirac's call to organize a conference in the short term.

When asked when it could take place, Peres said: "Quicker would be better."

Peres was in the French capital ahead of a trip to Washington for meetings with US officials amid increased diplomatic activity in recent days aimed at breaking the impasse between the Jewish state and the Palestinians.

Paris has pushed for an international Middle East conference at the ministerial level, with Chirac hammering the point home in talks last week with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian boys look for cover as Israeli tanks fire during a north of Gaza Strip July 29, 2002 after Palestinian gunmen shelled them with mortar missiles. Israel's defense minister said he hoped to hold security talks with Palestinians in the next few days, but the killing of a teenaged Palestinian girl only hours before dented hopes of reviving dialogue. Photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters
- Jul 29 9:54 AM ET