Clinton claims progress in Camp David failure

The Middle East peace talks at Camp David collapsed on Tuesday, but in conceding failure, President Bill Clinton said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators "made real headway" toward a future settlement.

The Middle East peace talks at Camp David collapsed on Tuesday, but in conceding failure, President Bill Clinton said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators "made real headway" toward a future settlement.

Clinton returned to the White House to say that the gaps between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had not been bridged, but forecast that they will be "because I think the alternative is unthinkable."

"I think they both remain committed to peace," he said. "I think they will both find a way to get there if they don't let time run away from them."

The two Middle East leaders spent 14 days at Camp David with Clinton as the sponsor and sometimes personal mediator in the peace talks to which he had called them.