AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Paul Keating, in his first visit as leader to the United States, could hardly have timed it worse.
Mr Keating has found himself comprehensively upstaged by the Palestinian-Israeli peace deal and had to agree to postpone his meeting with President Bill Clinton.
Although the Australian Embassy put a brave face on things, the impact of Mr Keating's visit to Washington was severely deflated by the last-minute extravaganza on the White House lawn starring Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Mr Keating's planned summit with the President had to be moved to a lunch yesterday at the White House.
And in accommodating the new schedule, Mr Keating had to cancel what was to have been a high-profile lunchtime speech at the influential National Press Club - his place being taken, ironically, by Mr Arafat.
The American media has also been so obsessed with every aspect of the Middle-East breakthrough that newspaper and television coverage of the Keating visit has so far been non-existent.
After their discussions, Mr Keating and Mr Clinton were due to hold a press conference early this morning.
