B] MIDEAST: Palestinian official says security talks in Cairo fail Updated Mon 1/8/2001 06:26 EST By Agence France-Presse Gaza City--Jan. 8--Israeli-Palestinian security talks in Cairo aimed at ending the violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel failed, a high-ranking Palestinian official said Monday, blaming Israeli "intransigence." The overnight talks, also attended by the chief of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Egyptian officials, were designed to halt violence in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel. * * * "The Cairo four-way security talks did not achieve any results because of the intransigence of the Israeli position and their insistence on continuing to keep the blockade on the Palestinian territories and divide them," the official said. Israel has sealed off the Palestinian territories for the greater part of the past three months in an effort to reduce the violence, which has left some 370 people dead, most of them Arabs. End

-- kevin (ktross@mailcity.com), January 08, 2001