1 Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres held talks Wednesday with President Hosni Mubarak aimed at renewing Israel's peace negotiations with the PLO that have been stalled by persistent violence.
2 The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth reported Wednesday that the meeting was expcted to be followed by a summit meeting Thursday between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Mubarak and Jordan's King Hussein.
3 Before departing Ben-Gurion Airport, Peres praised the Egyptian leader for working to achieve the Israel-PLO accord of September 1993 and hoped Mubarak could help get the talks moving again.
4 When asked what Mubarak could do, Peres replied that someone needed to convince the Palestine Liberation Organization to do more to rein in Islamic militants who have been attacking and killing Israelis.
5 Peres, met at Cairo International Airport by Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, did not talk to reporters before his meeting with Mubarak at the Ittahadiya presidential palace.
6 Violence between Palestinians and Israelis -- which have left more than 300 dead on both sides since the historic accord -- has confronted Israel's Labor-led government with its most serious crisis on the peace process.
7 Attacks on Israelis -- including a bombing Jan. 22 that killed 21 -- have prompted Israel to pull back from the accord's plan for withdrawing troops from much of the West Bank.
8 At the same time, Palestinians complain that Israel's continued building of Jewish settlements on occupied land is an attempt to thwart the agreement.
9 Wednesday's Mubarak-Peres meeting also was expected to focus on a dispute between their two countries over Israel's reputed nuclear arsenal, believed to number more than 200 warheads.
10 Egypt has been urging a nuclear-free Middle East and has said it will not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, being renegotiated this year, unless Israel also does so.
11 Peres said Wednesday that Israel, which has never confirmed nor denied it has nuclear weapons, would not sign the treaty.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres held talks Wednesday with President Hosni Mubarak aimed at renewing Israel ' s peace negotiations with the PLO that have been stalled by persistent violence .
PLO
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