The United Nations top human rights body met in a rare special session in Geneva Tuesday to discuss the deadly violence between Palestinians and Israelis.
Arab and Muslim countries, which called for the session, want the UN Human Rights Commission to set up an international commission of inquiry into the clashes which have claimed more than 100 lives, almost all of them Palestinian.
The session, expected to last two days, is only the fifth of its kind in the UN body's history, and opens as Middle Eastern leaders and US President Bill Clinton met for a second day of crisis talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Fierce clashes broke out in the West Bank and Gaza Strip between Palestinians and Israeli forces after a visit by Israel's opposition leader Ariel Sharon to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on September 28.
Israel has so far rejected demands by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for an international commission of inquiry into how the violence erupted, a dispute at the heart of the summit in Egypt - GENEVA (AFP)
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