RAMALLAH, West Bank -- With the Mideast peace deal he helped broker in tatters, U.S. envoy Dennis Ross met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday in an attempt to restore the deal and resume negotiations.

Ross met Netanyahu in Jerusalem for one hour before traveling to the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Arafat and his staff.

Ross said the talks focused on implementing the Wye River land-for-security memorandum signed between the parties at the White House in October.

Netanyahu froze implementation last month, arguing that the Palestinians had violated the accord.

The Palestinians denied the charges and said Netanyahu took the step because he faces a difficult campaign for re-election May 17 and wants to appease nationalist voters opposed to a troop withdrawal.

"Clearly it is very important from our perspective to have the Wye agreement implemented in all its parts," Ross told reporters after meeting Arafat. "I am not going to say that there are no problems in terms of trying to get this done but I think it is essential that we find a way to get the agreement implemented."

Earlier in Tel Aviv, Ross said the United States, which brokered the last two interim peace agreements including the Wye accord between Israel and the Palestinians, will play a much less active role in talks on a permanent accord.

A final peace agreement would draw the border between Israel and the Palestinian entity and determine the status of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements and Palestinian refugees.

"Permanent status is not something that should be mediated," said Ross, who has spent hundreds of hours in talks with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

In final status talks, "the two sides are dealing with existential questions that must be negotiated by them," Ross said.

"They must learn to live together. The only way to learn to live together is to learn to hammer out difficulties," Ross said.

There were already signs that the United States, which raised its profile in Mideast negotiations after Netanyahu came to power in May 1996, was already disentangling itself from the crisis-plagued role of mediator.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright did not include Israel in a planned visit to the region at the end of the month and Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon suggested it was a snub because Israel was holding up the the accord.
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