ed to Palestinian sources, said the two men met before the Israeli premier left for China on Monday where he is now on an official visit. „This is completely untrue. There was no such meeting with Netanyahu. These are all fabrications,“ Korei told Reuters. Israeli officials could not be reached for comment. The scope of a promised Israeli pullback in the West Bank is the main issue holding up the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, deadlocked since March 1997. The United States, acting as mediator, has suggested a 13 percent handover. Palestinians accept the figure but Israeli cabinet ministers say it is too high. Palestinian officials said this week the United States had been pressing President Yasser Arafat, who has spurned meetings with Netanyahu, to hold talks with Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai, viewed as a moderate in Netanyahu‘s right-wing cabinet. Arafat refused, according to the officials. They said Washington had also proposed that Korei and top PLO negotiator Mahmoud Abbas meet high-ranking Israeli cabinet ministers to discuss the pullout.