Palestinian officials said today that President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres planned to meet tomorrow in an effort to turn the fragile ceasefire into a lasting truce.
The international community has been pressuring Mr Arafat and Mr Peres to hold the long-overdue meeting as soon as possible in order to strengthen the five-day-old ceasefire.
Palestinian officials said a preparatory meeting between Mr Peres and senior Palestinian negotiators on the agenda of tomorrow’s talks, already put off several times by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was scheduled for late on Saturday.
Mr Arafat said yesterday he hoped to meet Mr Peres tomorrow if the Israelis did not change their mind.
"We welcome any meeting. But most important is to begin the meetings...and it was decided a meeting would be held on Sunday, but God knows", he said at a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mr Ismail Cem in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"My talks with Peres after this stage could be in Turkey", he said.
Mr Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said Turkey had been mooted as a possible venue for a Peres-Arafat meeting during talks yesterday between Mr Sharon and the visiting Turkish foreign minister.
Meanwhile Mr Peres said the situation on the ground had improved despite violations of the truce.
"In the last 48 hours there were ups and downs... in several incidents the Palestinian Authority took preventative steps. It still doesn't satisfy us, but there is no doubt that there has been a change in the situation", he told Israeli Radio.