Business, Mideast peace on Gore-Mubarak agenda

Business, Mideast peace on Gore-Mubarak agenda

CAIRO (Agencies): U.S. Vice President Al Gore met with
President Hosni Mubarak yesterday to discuss the collapsing Arab-
Israeli peace process and deepening business ties with Egypt.

It was the final leg of a three-nation tour that also took him
to Israel, where he apparently failed to persuade Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a more extensive troop
withdrawal from the West Bank, Israeli media reports said.

The troop withdrawal was to be the center of talks in London
today between U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Netanyahu.

Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the
Jewish state, has long been a mediator in Arab-Israeli
negotiations.

Gore met Mubarak at Al-Ittihadiya Palace. He also was to meet
with the Egypt-U.S. Presidents' Council, a business advisory
group established in 1995 to set up joint development projects
and encourage American investment in Egypt.

The program is widely seen as a way to wean Egypt from U.S.
aid. Egypt receives $2.1 billion a year in American aid, second
only to Israel's $3 billion.

Ceremonies at the palace included the signing of a treaty
calling for legal cooperation in cases involving terrorism and
organized crime. The two sides also signed agreements to increase
U.S. assistance to small businesses, environmental projects and
educational exchange.

On his first stop of the day, Gore met with students at the
Youssef el-Badri School in suburban Heliopolis. The school is
taking part in a U.S.-sponsored program Gore initiated to teach
children about the environment.

The vice president listened intently as students -- including
one girl in an Islamic headscarf -- explained experiments to
measure pollution levels and the growth of plants and trees. He
got down on one knee to look at a chart being compiled by a young
girl.

Gore was in Israel to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
Jewish state. He also met with Arafat, who already has accepted
an American proposal that links measures against Islamic
militants to an Israeli withdrawal from 13 percent of the West
Bank, which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians.

In a last-minute attempt to persuade Netanyahu to agree to the
U.S. initiative, Gore held a two-hour meeting with the Israeli
leader early yesterday morning, Israeli media reported.

In Vatican City, Pope John Paul said yesterday he was praying
for progress at Middle East peace talks in London.

"Tomorrow, May 4, there will be important meetings that aim to
overcome the serious difficulties that the peace process between
the state of Israel and the Palestinians is experiencing," the
Pontiff said in a regular weekly address.

"I join in the feelings of those who have proposed and
accepted this initiative in the profound hope that the two sides,
and those who are involved in helping them, may foster a strong
will to embark again on the path of dialog and peace."

The Polish Pope said that for the Palestinian and Israeli
people there was only one possible route -- respect, justice and
cooperation.

"Let us pray together that God illuminates those who will take
part in these important meetings," he told the faithful in St
Peter's Square.