The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, held an unprecedented meeting yesterday with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria on the sidelines of King Hassan II's funeral in Rabat, a senior Israeli official said.
Mr Barak and Mr Bouteflika had a "friendly and moving encounter" as they awaited the start of the funeral, Mr Danny Yatom, the Israeli leader's senior security adviser, said.
"This meeting was the result of a joint initiative of our two countries," and the encounter showed a positive change in Algeria's attitude towards Israel, he said.
The Algerian President said he believed Israel was serious about advancing the peace process and promised his support, said the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr David Levy, who was present at the meeting.
It was the first public meeting between an Israeli leader and an Algerian president and signalled a breakthrough in Mr Barak's declared campaign to revive the peace process with the Arab states.
"Taking account of the circumstances, I definitely sensed a desire for peace in the meetings I held," Mr Barak said in Rabat, without specifying which Arab leaders he had met.
Mr Barak also met the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat. They were joined by President Clinton for a short three-way encounter. The meeting "did not deal with the nitty-gritty" of the peace process "out of respect for the deceased", an Israeli television report said.
Mr Barak and Mr Arafat had planned to hold a key summit meeting on Saturday night to relaunch peace negotiations which stagnated under Mr Benjamin Netanyahu. But the meeting was postponed until tomorrow, following King Hassan's sudden death.
Conspicuously absent from Mr Barak's encounters with Arab leaders were meetings with Syrian officials. Mr Levy said earlier yesterday the US had been trying to arrange a meeting between Mr Barak and President Hafez al-Assad of Syria.
But, in the end, Mr Assad did not attend the funeral.
"I didn't know he was supposed to come," was all Mr Barak said when asked whether he was upset a meeting with Mr Assad had not come off.
Meanwhile, Israeli fighter jets struck what they described as guerrilla targets north of Israel's south Lebanon occupation zone yesterday.
Lebanese security forces said the Israeli attacks on valleys in southern Lebanon followed a guerrilla attack on an Israeli patrol in the occupied border zone. Three fighter bombers fired at least four missiles at 7.25 a.m. (5.25 a.m. Irish time) on a valley between the villages of Touline and Qabrikha, east of the southern port city of Tyre, they said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the raids, which came after an attack by the Shia Muslim Amal movement on an area facing the valley, but located inside the Israeli-occupied border strip.
A spokesman for the pro-Syrian Amal said the group's guerrillas fired mortar rounds at an Israeli patrol in Qantara.