The meetings, which began here late Saturday, have come just days before the two leaders are scheduled to meet US President Bill Clinton at the White House next week. The goal of the talks was to reach a partial accord ``in principle, or a detailed agreement'' touching on some of the main issues blocking the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said State Department spokesman James Rubin.

``We are working to see if we can make progress on the key categories and lock in that progress ahead of an accord,'' he said. ``We do not expect to solve all the detailed points, this is not the objective.'' Albright met Netanyahu at the hotel he is staying in during the UN General Assembly meeting here. The outcome of the meeting with Netanyahu was ``good'', Albright said. One top Israeliofficial said that Israel could be ready to accept the US proposal for a 13 per cent withdrawal from the West Bank, in exchange for three per cent of that area being set aside as a nature reserve, where the Palestinians would have limited sovereignty and be responsible for security. ``We are close to closure,'' the senior Israeli official said. ``We have done our half and we wait to see what the Palestinians will do on security.''

The official believes that such an agreement -- known as the 10 per cent plus three per cent formula -- can be reached early next week, with other disagreements with the Palestinians being ironed out over the following two weeks.

The disagreement over the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, as agreed on in the Oslo accord, has been the largest obstacle for resuming peace talks with the Palestinians for the past 18 months. Before the meeting with Arafat, Rubin said Albright would try to convince the Palestinian leader to modify, or at least tone down, his presentation to theUN General Assembly on Monday.

In the speech, Arafat is expected to confirm his intention of proclaiming an independent Palestinian state in May 1999, when the five-year interim period of self-rule expires.