Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and US Secretary of State ,Madeleine Albright, arrived Thursday in Egypt for further talks to end deadly clashes in the Middle East, despite the absence of Israeli Prime Minister ,Ehud Barak.
Arafat and Barak held a marathon session Wednesday in Paris with Albright, but the talks ended with no formal ceasefire agreement to end a week of fighting that has claimed more than 70 Palestinian lives.
Even so, the Israeli army said Thursday it had agreed with Palestinian security forces a to halt the weeklong violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel which has cuased the death of more than 70 people.
A Barak spokeswoman said he was expected back in Israel around midday Thursday and that he would chair a cabinet meeting later in Tel Aviv.
"It is certain he will not be going" to Sharm el-Sheikh, the spokeswoman told AFP.
Arafat went straight into talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before Albright's arrival, a close source to Mubarak said.
Despite the army's announcement, violence erupted again Thursday at the Netzarim junction flashpoint in the Gaza Strip, when Israeli soldiers guarding a nearby Jewish settlement opened fire on some 30 Palestinian youths who had pelted them with stones.
No injuries were immediately reported.
The Paris talks broke down apparently over Palestinian demands for an international inquiry into the clashes and Arafat's refusal to sign a ceasefire accord.
But Palestinian spokeswoman Leila Shahid said that the Palestinians had never promised to sign anything.
On the other hand, Israeli Tourism Minister ,Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who accompanied Barak to Paris, told Israeli public radio he had heard Arafat telephone the commanders of his security forces telling them to end the violence.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian demonstrators erupted after Israeli ultra-nationalist Ariel Sharon made a controversial visit to Jerusalem's mosque compound, the most bitterly disputed site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on Thursday last week -- SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP)
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