Secretary Powell Pushes Mideast Leaders to Make Most of Cease- Fire
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the conflict in the Middle East: Secretary of State Colin Powell is pushing leaders there to make the most of what is still a shaky cease-fire. As Andrea Koppel reports, Powell is hoping to return to Washington with a better understanding of what both sides really want.</s>ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Secretary of State Powell arrived in Jerusalem with modest expectations as to just how much he could achieve, yet, he says, determined to press Israel's prime minister for answers. In particular, Powell said, he hoped Ariel Sharon would better define what he told President Bush this week: that there would have to be -- quote -- "complete quiet for 10 days" before Israel would move forward to implement the next step laid out in the Mitchell Committee blueprint for peace.</s>COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We hope we will reach a situation in the next few days, next couple of weeks, where everybody looking at it, including Mr. Sharon, will say it seems like we have reached a level of violence that's -- or a level of quiet and lack of violence that satisfies our requirements to move forward in a cooling- off period.</s>KOPPEL: The Bush administration believes that, in recent days, there has been a slight improvement in the level of violence. Still, two weeks after CIA Director George Tenet brokered this tentative cease-fire, Prime Minister Sharon is under tremendous political pressure at home to retaliate against Palestinian acts of violence. But following talks with Secretary Powell, Egypt's government insisted the Palestinians are doing their part.</s>AHMED MAHER, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We think Yasser Arafat is doing the most he can do. On the other side, we hope that the other side does the same because we still hear and see provocative words and provocative actions.</s>KOPPEL: And while Powell says he isn't bringing any new ideas, he said he hopes to work with the parties to lay out a timeline to fully implement the Mitchell Committee blueprint.</s>POWELL: All of us believe that the Mitchell Committee report is the essential plan, the essential document that must be used to try to bring a resolution to this crisis. It gives us a clear road map ahead.</s>KOPPEL (on camera): Secretary Powell has made clear he doesn't view his mission here this week as a quick fix. Rather, he said, it's going to be a long, difficult process, one he likened, in his words, to going up a hill very, very slowly, one step at a time. Andrea Koppel, CNN, Jerusalem.