Arafat meets Mubarak in Egypt

The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat has had talks on the Middle East peace process with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The talks follow a meeting earlier this week between the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright and President Mubarak and come before a meeting between Mr Arafat, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US president Bill Clinton next week in Washington.

So far the peace talks have made little progress; the Washington meeting will, among other things, cover the issue of Jerusalem another Israeli handover of parts of the occupied West Bank.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service