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By Jonathan Wright JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright meets Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Tuesday, trying to forge a Middle East peace deal in talks that an Israeli negotiator called the "most serious" ever. Saying the moment of truth was fast approaching for Israelis and Palestinians, Albright spent about three hours with Barak in Jerusalem Monday and a senior U.S. official said they would meet again Tuesday after she sees Arafat …

…stage because the process has just begun," she told the news conference. While Albright was focused on peacemaking, Barak was doing battle with a key coalition partner, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas party, which has made its support for his policies conditional on cash for its schools. Barak could face trouble Wednesday in a preliminary vote to dissolve parliament, a proposal which Shas's 17 lawmakers have threatened to support. Barak has a 68-52 seat majority in parliament.