WASHINGTON, Nov 10: Pales Unian President Yasser Arafat said on Thursday that US President Bill Clinton would bring up a proposal to deploy a UN force on the West Bank when he meets on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, reports Reuters.

"He said he will discuss it with the other party'.’" Arafat told the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington after talks with Clinton and US Secretary’ of State Madeleine Albright.

Clinton said on Monday that the idea of a UN peace force was not feasible because of Israeli opposition. White House spokesman PJ Crowley said on Thursday that Washington had not changed its view that the proposal was not viable.

But the United States, in the face of Palestinian insistence and Arab support, has not refused to talk about the Idea as a way of ending six weeks of Israeli-Palestinian violence in which at least 190 people have been killed.

And State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Thursday that it was unlikely

that the plan would be implemented in the near future. "We don't believe this is the time for new UN Initiatives. We don’t think that's where the solution lies." he said.

Crowley, of the National Security Council, added: To spend too much time on it right now simply diverts us then from bringing the violence under control and resuming a political process. It can t be done unless both parties want it done."

The proposal will come up at the UN Security' Council In New York on Friday, when Arafat is expected to appeal for UN protection for the Palestinians.

The Palestinians are asking for a 2.000-strong UN force as a buffer between Israeli forces and the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Clinton and Arafat met at the White House under the shadow of an Israeli attack on a leading member of Arafat's Fatah movement, Hussein Abayat. whom Israeli linked to several shooting incidents in which Israelis have been killed.

An Israeli helicopter on Thursday attacked the vehicle in which Abayat was traveling, killing him and two women bystanders near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

The United States declined to condemn the attacks but said the incident did raise "serious Issues."

Arafat said the killing, described by Fatah as an assassination, was a "dangerous development" which Israeli chief of staff Shaul Mofaz had presaged in recent threats.

Lt-Gen. Mofaz said on Sunday that the Israeli army should "move to a level where our operations are more initiated and less retaliatory."

The United States invited Arafat and Barak to Washington after they failed to carry out all the commitments they made at a summil with President Clinton at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Oct 17.

The United States says the best way to end the violence is to implement those commitments, which Include appeals for calm and troop redeployments.