GENEVA ACCORD

financial times: Israel Attacks Powell For
Talks On Geneva Plan

JERUSALEM - Israel sharply criticised Colin Powell, US secretary of state, on Tuesday for agreeing to meet later this week the authors of an unofficial peace plan known as the "Geneva accord", which was launched on Monday.

"I think he [Powell] is making a mistake," Ehud Olmert, deputy prime minister, told Israel Radio. "I think he is not helping the process. I think this a wrong step by a representative of the American administration."

Mr Powell has expressed his willingness to meet Yossi Beilin, an architect of the Oslo accords, and Yasser Abed Rabbo, a former Palestinian cabinet minister and joint author of the Geneva accord. But the plan has come under attack by the Israeli government led by Ariel Sharon, prime minister, with some ministers calling its authors "traitors".