Israeli and Palestinian negotiators headed into a second day of talks with US officials in Washington on Wednesday amid conflicting signals from the region over the prospects for outgoing President Bill Clinton's last push for Middle East peace before he leaves office. “The talks are continuing,” said a state department official who declined to describe the tenor or tone of the separate meetings between the US peace team and the two sides that began on Turesday at Bolling Air Force Base.

“The talks continued late into the night on Tuesday and they are continuing on Wednesday,” a senior Israeli official in Washington said, speaking privately. He said, “The talks were being held in a small space, where negotiators are constantly in contact, and are able to talk informally. They eat together,” he added. The US official could not say whether a planned trilateral meeting -- that Washington hopes can be parlayed into direct face-to-face discussions between the Israelis and Palestinians -- had taken place as expected on Tuesday. The air base has been completely sealed off from the press and public, reflecting the US belief that the talks should be conducted in total secrecy. However, senior negotiators from both sides arriving in Washington on Tuesday said that they were not optimistic about progress being made at bolling given continuing Israeli-Palestinian clashes in the West Bank and Gaza that has left nearly 350 people dead over the past 11 weeks. Bureau Report