Peres to stand for PM

The Israeli veteran politician and Nobel peace prize winner, Shimon Peres, has officially announced his intention to stand as a candidate in the forthcoming prime ministerial election.

Mr Peres needs the support of at least ten MPs to be able to contest the election in February; and the small left-wing party, Meretz, has said it will decide later today on whether to endorse his candidacy.

If the party does support Mr Peres, this could set the stage for a three-way contest between him, the Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the right-wing Likud party leader, Ariel Sharon.

The BBC Middle East correspondent says if Mr Peres contests the election, this would split the left-wing vote.

Recent opinion polls show that the Israelis see Mr Peres -- a principal architect of the peace process -- as the man best suited to deal with the Palestinians. Mr Peres' announcement came as Palestinian and Israeli negotiators were about to start a third day of talks outside Washington in an attempt to break the deadlock in the peace process.

The American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright , is to rejoin them for further talks later today at an airbase outside Washington.

President Clinton held a brief meeting with the two delegations yesterday

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service