ARABS-ISRAEL - Nov. 28 - Zinni Calls For Peace.

At the end of his first round of Middle East truce talks, US envoy Anthony Zinni tells Israeli and PA leaders that their people have suffered enough and it is time to end 14 months of fighting. (The comments follow his meeting with Arafat and his tour of the West Bank for a closer look at Jewish settlements. He also held talks with Israeli leaders on Nov. 27, when he flew over Israel and the West Bank in a helicopter with PM Sharon, hovering over the Israeli city of Afula minutes after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israelis. The police shot and killed the gunmen). He says the West Bank tour has given him the chance "to see the difficulty presented to the Palestinians" by the conflict. He adds: "I think both sides have suffered far too much in the last months and I think it is time for change". He says his mission is to get both sides to lay down their arms and start implementing a ceasefire brokered by CIA Director George Tenet and a broader peace plan proposed by former Senator George Mitchell. PA officials strongly condemned the attacks against Israeli civilians and reaffirmed its commitment to Zinni's mission to put a truce-to-talks plan into motion. Arafat called for Zinni to draw up "a mechanism and timeline" to implement the Tenet and Mitchell plans and said he was "exerting 100 percent effort to make these efforts succeed in order to get a comprehensive and lasting peace". But Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Zinni: "We see no change in Arafat's strategy of violence and terror, and if you bring about a tactical change on his part it will be an achievement". US officials said Zinni would remain in the region for as long as it takes to achieve his objectives. Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral in Gaza of a 22-year-old Hamas gunman Osama Helles killed by Israeli soldiers after he killed a woman during the Nov. 27 ambush of a convoy of Jewish settlers. Members of Hamas' military wing vowed at the funeral: "Your blood will not go in vain". In another incident on Nov. 28, an Israeli motorist killed an elderly Palestinian man near Nablus. Palestinian witnesses said it was intentional. The Israeli police said initial findings showed it was accidental. Since the violence started at end-Sept. 2000, at least 725 Palestinians and 192 Israelis have been killed.