ISRAELI peace activists and Palestinian officials will meet in South Africa next week to discuss ideas for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement at a conference to be chaired by President Thabo Mbeki. ”Mbeki will chair the meeting as part of the president and South Africa’s role in continuing the search for peace in the Middle East,” presidential representative Bheki Khumalo said. The meeting will bring together Palestinian officials with Israeli peace activists including Yossi Beilin, an architect of the Israeli-Palestinian interim accords who was a cabinet minister in Israel’s previous government. Peace talks ended without agreement in January when the Palestinians rejected proposals made by then prime minister Ehud Barak and former US president Bill Clinton. Barak was defeated by current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a week later. -Sapa