Efforts by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to form a government of national unity with right-wing hawk Ariel Sharon appeared to have hit a brick wall with no meeting between the two scheduled for Wednesday.
"There will be no meeting Wednesday between Mr. Barak and Mr. Sharon on the formation of a government of national unity," the prime minister's office told AFP.
The spokesman added, however, that "discussions between the two teams of negotiators of Likud and Mr. Barak's One Israel party have not been ruled out for Wednesday".
Barak met Monday with Sharon to discuss the right-wing party's conditions for joining a government led by Barak, the day after Barak announced Israel was taking a "time-out" from the peace process, and following almost four weeks of Israeli-Palestinian clashes which have killed 138 people, almost all of them Arabs.
However, the two failed to agree on power sharing, particularly on Sharon's demand to be given powers of veto in the cabinet on security and matters involving Middle East peace negotiations – JERUSALEM (AFP)
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