FILE PHOTOS OF PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT AND ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EHUD BARAK, 2000-01-18 (photo)

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak are seen in these file photos. Barak and Arafat met on January 17 to discuss a possible delay in a U.S.-brokered framework peace deal, Israeli political sources said. They said the leaders and senior aides held the unscheduled meeting in central Israel to consider postponing by two months the February 13 deadline for a framework accord, the forerunner to a permanent peace deal to be concluded by September. The meeting, kept under wraps at an undisclosed location, lasted well over three hours, the sources said. It followed the postponement of a new round of Israeli-Syrian peace talks due to have begun on Wednesday in the Washington area. Palestinians fear Barak has cast talks with them aside in favour of the high-profile Syria negotiations. JDP