Despite some Palestinian reservations, and amid new alerts about possible suicide-bombers, Israeli and Palestinian ministers met last night and are to meet today in the highest-level contacts for four months.
Mr Shimon Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister, held talks last night with a key new ministerial appointee to the Palestinian Authority cabinet, Finance Minister Mr Salam Fayed, and is today to meet Interior Minister Mr Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, who has been given responsibility by PA President Mr Yasser Arafat for the various Palestinian security apparatuses.
The meetings were approved by Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, because of the relative lull in Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets.
Mr Arafat has sanctioned the talks in order to have his ministers urge Mr Peres to ease conditions in the West Bank cities, which Israel has reoccupied over that period and where hundreds of thousands of residents are being held under extended curfews.
Some 30 Palestinians have died since the re-invasion. However, Palestinian leaders are not unanimous about the value of the talks.
While Mr Nabil Sha'ath, the PA Planning Minister, said the meetings could be used to press Israel to release tax revenues it is withholding from the PA, Mr Arafat's cabinet secretary, Mr Ahmed Abdel Rahman, said the sessions would play into Israel's hands.