Powell to hold last-ditch talks with Sharon and Arafat

Still pressing for a ceasefire, US Secretary of State Colin Powell is to hold at least one more round of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Powell may be nearing the end of his peace mission and would like to return to Washington with at least one solid gain. But, Sharon has vowed to keep Israeli troops in Ramallah indefinitely and Arafat is hedging on his commitment to curb violence until Israel pulls out.

Powell was due to meet Sharon today and then go to Ramallah tomorrow for a meeting with Arafat in his battered compound.

Those two meetings could hold the key to his difficult peacemaking mission.

‘‘We will maintain close contact with both sides in the coming days,’’ State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

But that may be through senior US officials, not Powell, who could be going home late tomorrow or early on Thursday.

Palestinian officials said they were working on a joint statement with the US that would include a strong condemnation of suicide bombers and a call for Israel to pull out of Palestinian-controlled areas.

The two sides began putting the document together during yesterday’s talks.

A copy of the first draft shows that Palestinians want to include a call for international observers and further UN Security Council action.

Powell is considering an international or regional conference aimed at stopping the violence and restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

‘‘It is a way to get the parties together and talking,’’ Powell said on the ninth day of a peace mission that has made little apparent progress.

Sharon suggested a conference to Powell at their meeting in Tel Aviv on Sunday, though Sharon objected to including Arafat.

Powell said Arafat could send high-level Palestinian officials to represent him if talks were held at the foreign minister level.

Sharon ‘‘gave some endorsement to that kind of idea’’ when they talked on Sunday ‘‘and Chairman Arafat did as well,’’ Powell said.

But Hassan Abdel Rahman, the top Palestinian official in the US, said Sharon should first stop his incursion into the West Bank: ‘‘Nothing can happen before that,’’ he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Arafat is the elected leader of the Palestinian people.

‘‘Nobody can fire him and we cannot replace him. But what we can demand is that he will change his policies and behaviour. This is a must,’’ Peres said.

Powell said he did not broach the idea of who would attend a conference except that representatives of both sides would be there. He said of Arafat, ‘‘It does not necessarily require his presence to get started.’’