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Mr Yassar Arafat
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Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said today he was ready to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Berlin "at any moment" in efforts to end nearly 11 months of bloodshed.
Israel welcomed Mr Arafat's remarks, made after talks with German Foreign Minister Mr Joschka Fischer, but said a meeting would mean nothing unless it brought real change on the ground.
In Jerusalem, Israeli police said a suspected bomb had exploded in or near a car in the Russian Compound district, an area of the city packed with fashionable bars and restaurants.
No one was hurt in the blast, but the incident highlighted the threat to diplomatic efforts to halt violence that has raged since the start of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip last September.
Mr Fischer has been thrust into the role of mediator as Mr Peres tries to jumpstart peace talks as a prelude to implementation of an internationally-backed peacemaking plan.
"I welcome your (Fischer's) good ideas and I welcome meeting...Shimon Peres in your office in Berlin," Mr Arafat, with Mr Fischer at his side, told reporters after meeting the German minister in the Palestinian-ruled West Bank city of Ramallah.
Asked when a meeting could take place, Mr Arafat said: "At any moment." Mr Peres, who was in Hungary today, said he intended to meet Mr Arafat "in the near future." No date has been set.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he welcomed the idea of a meeting as long as it achieved results.
Mr Arafat was due to go to Cairo later today and to China on Thursday, and Mr Peres was already out of the country, making a meeting this week unlikely. The two last met on June 29th in Lisbon, but failed to make a breakthrough.