Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today he was ready to talk peace with "moderate" Arab leaders, but Arab commentators said the offer was unlikely to win any takers while guns blazed in the West Bank.
Sharon, who said he would press on with a military offensive against Palestinian cities in the West Bank, welcomed a Saudi peace proposal adopted by Arab leaders which included recognition of Israel. But he said details should be negotiated.
"I am ready to go to any place with no condition from any side and to talk peace," Sharon said in an address to parliament in which he was heckled by Israeli Arab and other deputies.
Sharon said he was willing to speak to "moderate and responsible" Arab leaders, but did not say who would fit that description.
Israel has peace treaties with only two Arab states, Jordan and Egypt. Both countries have expressed anger at Israel's 10-day-old offensive in the West Bank, launched after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis.
Israel says the campaign aims to root out those behind the suicide attacks.
Arab political analysts said the offer to meet Arab leaders was unlikely to win approval as long as Israeli forces continued to confine Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to his Ramallah headquarters.
Arab leaders had laughed off an earlier proposal by Sharon to address an Arab summit in Beirut late last month.
"We cannot negotiate while his troops are still in Ramallah surrounding the chairman or occupying the whole Palestinian zone," said one Arab official in the region said.
The Israeli prime minister said he would discuss the proposal for holding such meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell when he visits Israel later this week to try to negotiate a ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians.
The United States has stepped up the pressure on Israel to withdraw its troops swiftly, amid an international uproar and mounting Arab outrage.
Sharon said the military operation would continue but he would try to end it "as soon as possible".
Sharon said he welcomed the peace initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia which he said marked the first time the kingdom had offered to recognise Israel's right to exist in secure borders.
"The Saudi initiative has a positive element but the details must be discussed between the sides themselves. One cannot accept dictates in peace talks," he said.
But another Arab official said there was little room for talks, and said the offer of meetings did not sound sincere but more likely a bid to buy time.
"Saudi Arabia has given their maximum. They cannot give anything more now. Negotiating the Arab offer means that he is asking for more time," he said.
"It is not possible that anyone can meet him now. It's just a way to show he is saying something positive," the official added.
Arab leaders unanimously backed the Saudi plan at the Arab League summit in Beirut in late March.
It offers Israel normal ties with Arab states if it returns all occupied Arab land and agrees to live alongside a Palestinian state.
The plan also calls for a "fair solution" to the Palestinian problem based on a 1948 U.N. resolution that calls for refugees to be repatriated or compensated.
Sharon said Israel could not discuss the return of "Arab refugees" which he said would mean the destruction of the state of Israel.