Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will travel to Cairo in the next two days to hold talks on the state of Middle East peace with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said Sunday.
The talks are "part of the efforts and intensive contacts going on right now to reach an accord between the Palestinian and Israeli sides," said Moussa, who did not specify the exact date of Arafat's visit.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met over the past week in Washington, where US President Bill Clinton presented them Saturday with a plan seeking to put an end to three months of violence.
The two sides need to decide by Wednesday whether to accept US proposals that reportedly call for compromises on the status of east Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the borders of a future Palestinian state.
Arafat consults regularly with Mubarak, one of his key allies in the Arab world.
Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, has often helped negotiate between Israel and the Palestinians -- CAIRO (AFP)
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