JERUSALEM, May 9: The United States Middle East envoy Dennis Ross appeared to be making little progress in his latest mission to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

``I cannot tell you that I am optimistic,'' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down two months ago after Netanyahu gave the final go-ahead for building 6,500 houses for Jews in Arab east Jerusalem, on land claimed by both sides.

Ross, on his second mission in a month, met Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Gaza and Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Israel radio that Ross brought no new ideas.A terse statement from Netanyahu's office said Ross had reported on his meeting with Arafat and ``would continue to move between the sides in order to continue the process of clarifying positions.''

Ross was due to meet Arafat again on Friday and then go to Cairo, ending his current round of talks ahead of Israel's Memorial and Independence Day commemorations on Sunday and Monday.

Israel holds that Arafat must crack down on ``terror'' before resuming talks, a move which Netanyahu said ``would help the peace process.''Arafat's spokesman Marwan Kanafani said the Palestinian leader stressed to Ross the need to stop all settlement activity before peace talks could resume, but Netanyahu's aide David Bar-Illan said the building work would continue.

Regarding Israeli-Jordan water dispute, Israel radio reported on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met secretly with Jordan's King Hussein overnight to discuss the issue as well as focus on the stalled Middle East peace process.

Netanyahu flew by helicopter with top aides and senior military officials to meet the King at the Red Sea resort of Aqaba, where the Jordanian monarch is recovering from surgery, the radio said.

The meeting followed a new crisis in Israeli-Jordanian relations sparked when Jordan's Crown Prince Hassan cancelled a scheduled meeting with Netanyahu on Monday due to a dispute over water-sharing.y

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.