Clinton, Peres Sign Counter-Terrorism Accord

WASHINGTON (CNN, April 30) -- President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres signed an accord today to combat terrorism, a result of last month's summit in Egypt.

The accord formalizes U.S. support for Israel in combatting guerilla attacks such as the wave of suicide bombings that have killed 59 people recently in Israel.

The $100 million package, half of which has already been appropriated by Congress, will fund equipment and training, including:

Bomb and mine detection equipment
U.S. training assistance to Israel to fight terrorism
Shared intelligence to fight terrorist threats within Israel

"For the past three years Israel and the United States have worked hand in hand to advance the peace process in the Middle East," Clinton said.

Peres praised Clinton as having "this great capacity to inspire the whole free world with his ideas, determination, with his capacity to distinguish what is right and what is wrong, what is immediate and what is long range(224K WAV sound)." He added, "I feel myself very lucky to see a person like him standing ahead and trying to lead the whole world to peace ... for everybody."

Clinton and Peres also shared a working lunch to discuss ways to move ahead the Middle East peace process in the wake of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Hizbollah Muslim guerrillas in southern Lebanon.

Peres was to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat later today, and Arafat is scheduled to meet Clinton in the Oval Office Wednesday morning, the first time he will have been received in Washington as a national leader in his own right.

Clinton, Peres Sign Counter-Terrorism Accord

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