Palestinian PM storms out of meeting

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UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad stormed out of a U.N. meeting with Israel's deputy foreign minister in a terminology dispute, officials said.

Israeli media Wednesday reported Fayyad walked out of a U.N. Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee meeting and canceled a planned press conference with Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon in New York after the latter refused to approve a summary of the meeting which said "two states" but did not include the words "two states for two peoples."

"What I say is that if the Palestinians are not willing to talk about two states for two peoples, let alone a Jewish state for Israel, then there's nothing to talk about," Ayalon told The Jerusalem Post in a telephone interview late Tuesday.

"And also, I said if the Palestinians mean, at the end of the process, to have one Palestinian state and one bi-national state, this will not happen," he was quoted saying.

At the meeting Fayyad asked to further ease Palestinian movement in the West Bank, Ynetnews.com reported. Replying to the request, Ayalon said Israel will not gamble away its security and future.

Ayalon also demanded guarantees money donated to the Palestinian Authority would not be used for incitement or a boycott of Israeli products, the Web site said.

The daily Haaretz reported representatives of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the United States failed to reach agreement on the imminent end of the settlement freeze. The newspaper said the parties appear to have reached a dead end and the atmosphere at the meeting was very tense.