ANKARA (A.A) - 31.05.2002 - As uncertainty has been continuing about date and place of Middle East Peace Conference that was planned to be held in order to resume talks between Israel and Palestine and to reach a solution in the region, difference of opinion between the sides about the conference has been increasing.
An Israeli diplomat told the A.A correspondent on Friday that Israel had preferred the conference to be ''regional'' instead of ''international''.
The same diplomat said, ''we want the conference to be held mainly among the regional countries and in a country that knew the region very well. Turkey is the most appropriate country to this end. There are Spain and Italy in the list of countries to host the conference.''
Noting that the United States had been maintaining its efforts, the same official said that U.S. President George W. Bush would come together with President Hosni Mubarak in Camp David on June 7 and 8 to discuss the issue.
He added that results of the talks between Central Intelligence Unit (CIA) Director George Tenet, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Palestinian officials were of great importance to determine date and place of the conference.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian official said that such a conference could not be held in short-term under current conditions.
Criticizing policy of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, the official said that Sharon could sit on the negotiation table only with himself.
Turkey is ready to hold a similar organization with the summit meeting between the European Union (EU) and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Istanbul.
In various platform, Turkey said that it would be pleased with hosting the conference.