Clinton Departs Egypt After Peace Talks

U.S. President Bill Clinton left Cairo on Tuesday after a brief airport meeting in an appointed room with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the Middle East peace process.

Mubarak who has been an instrumental mediator between both sides, won't be attending next month's U.N. Millenium Summit in New York, so President Clinton opted to meet with him.

The two spoke for about an hour and 45 minutes, with the U.S. president telling reporters, as the meeting started, that they hoped to help the Israelis and Palestinians "get over this next big hump" and strike a peace deal by their self-imposed September 13 deadline.

President Clinton failed at last month's Camp David summit to bridge gaps between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Those talks covered the most vexing issues in the 52-year conflict, including the status of the holy city of Jerusalem, final borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees and of Jewish settlers on the West Bank.

President Clinton spent about three hours at the Cairo airport at the end of a three-day African tour that included a weekend visit to Nigeria and a speech on Monday to the Burundi peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania. ^

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