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Arabs keen to meet

Israel's Likud, Netanyahu says

JERUSALEM: Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Arab states wanted to meet representatives of his Likud party in the belief that it stood a good chance of winning the May 29 elections.
Netanyahu refuses to meet Israel's Palestinian negotiating partner Yasser Arafat, but the Likud chief is trying to portray himself a peacemaker in the face of opinion polls that show him trailing Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
He did not specify which Arab countries were interested in talking to his hardline party.
"Netanyahu is apparently conducting contacts with countries that don't exist," said a spokesman for Peres's Labour party.
Speaking to army radio, Netanyahu said: "(There) are feelers by Arab states interested in getting to know Likud. They believe there is a good chance Likud will form the next government and are interested in hearing about our peace policy."
"For our part people representing Likud get it across that Likud will go on with the peace process, both with the Palestinians and with the rest of the Arab states," he said.
A Dahaf opinion poll of 503 Israelis published on Friday by the daily Yedioth Ahronoth showed Peres leading Netanyahu, 51 percent to 45 percent with four percent offering no response. The margin of error was four percent.-Reuter