The Palestinian leadership of Yasser Arafat will not respond on Wednesday to US President Bill Clinton's proposals for a peace deal with Israel, a Palestinian official told AFP.
"We will not respond today. We are waiting to discuss the situation with Arab states and some international states," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee is due to meet later Wednesday in Gaza to review Clinton's plan which contains proposals to settle some of the most contentious issues dividing the two sides such as Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
"Until now there is no decision, the Palestinian leadership is still giving its deepest consideration to the US proposals," Arafat's top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are to hold a summit in Egypt Thursday on a US plan to end three months of bloodshed and forge a lasting Middle East peace deal, according to AFP.
The meeting, hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, is to take place Thursday evening in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, officials from both sides told the agency.
It will be their first face-to-face meeting since the violence erupted in late September, although the two leaders were both in Sharm el-Sheikh in October, when they agreed a truce that ultimately failed to take hold – (AFP)
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