[originaltext] Palestinian leader Yasser Ararat met U.S. Secretary of State M

Palestinian leader Yasser Ararat met U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Washington on Monday, in the hope of securing U.S. recognition of a Palestinian right to self-determination.
   Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, in Washington with Ararat, told a meeting earlier the Palestinians wanted the United States to help fill the legal vacuum which might arise when agreements with Israel expire on May 4.
   Ararat said he might declare a Palestinian state on May 4, but the Israeli Government has threatened to retaliate by annexing the parts of the West Bank it still controls.
   Erekat, speaking at the Brookings Institute before the Arafat-Albright meeting, said declaring a Palestinian state was one of several options, and no decision had been taken.
   "We are asking the United States to try to fill the legal vacuum and to recognize our self-determination,’ he said.
   Erekat held two days of talks with lower-level U.S. officials, such as Middle East peace talks coordinator Dennis Ross, but he said a large gap remained between what the Palestinians want and what the United States can offer.
   Ararat already visited Sweden and France this week to consult on what should happen on and after May 4. He was expected to meet President Bill Clinton yesterday before leaving for the United Nations in New York and for Canada.
   After her meeting with Arafat, Albright told reporters the May 4 problem was one of the issues she and Clinton would discuss with Ararat.
   Under a peace agreement signed in Cairo in May 1994, Israel and the Palestinians were to have completed talks on the final status of the Palestinian territories within five years, by May 4 this year, but those talks have hardly started.
   Since the agreement did not say what would happen if no deal was reached, some lawyers say Israel could in theory revoke all the concessions they have made to the Palestinians.