US President Bill Clinton will this week send special Middle East envoy Dennis Ross to Israel, as the effort continues to narrow the gap between Israeli and Palestinian representatives on the latest US peace proposals, a senior US official has said.
Ross was to meet with both Israeli and Palestinian representatives, in what is likely to be his last visit to the region as Clinton`s envoy.

Ross would leave for the Middle East in the next few days, another US official said on Sunday.

Clinton was expected to give indications as to the state of play on the peace process in an address to the Israeli policy forum in New York.
However, with just two weeks left before his term ends on January 20, the Clinton administration was signaling that a major breakthrough was not necessarily expected during that period.

Rather, it is hoped to pass on to the incoming President elect George W Bush administration a clear picture of the Israeli and Palestinian positions on the US peace proposals presented on December 23, possibly formulated in some kind of framework agreement. We are going to keep working on trying to develop some way to get (Israelis and Palestinians) to agree on some basic principles, because I think it is useful to the next administration, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Sunday.

Palestinian officials have said that the effort to reach a settlement will, if necessary, continue under the incoming US president. Bureau Report