CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In West Virginia, the State Department wants to put the Israeli-Syrian peace talks on a fast track. CNN's Andrea Koppel is in Shepherdstown, West Virginia with more -- Andrea.</s>ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. To do so, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is expected to recommend that President Clinton return here to Shepherdstown, to quicken the pace of what one senior U.S. official compared to a creaky machine. If President Clinton does return, it would be his third trip here to West Virginia. Earlier this week, the U.S. president succeeded in getting the two sides, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, and the Syrian foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, to agree to sit down together for face-to-face talks, and set an agenda for this round of peace talks. They agreed to set up four committees, two of which have already met, on Wednesday they met. The first one is normal, peaceful relations, that's addressing establishing formal diplomatic relations between Damascus and Jerusalem, and then security arrangements to deal with military defense concerns on both sides. The other two committees: Water, to address questions of access to scarce water resources; and borders, that is, how much of the strategic Golan Heights Syria will get back from Israel have as yet to meet. U.S. officials saying they hope that the remaining two committees will convene sometime before this round ends. But clearly, Carol, U.S. officials are not satisfied with the pace of these talks and are hoping that the presence of President Clinton will help both sides come up with some fresh ideas. Reporting live, I'm Andrea Koppel, CNN, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
Israel-Syria Peace Talks: State Department Calls on Clinton to Speed Up Negotiations