Arafat meets Mubarak in Egypt

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

The meeting was designed to prepare for talks in Washington next week between representives from the United States, the Palestinians and Israel to prepare for a new Middle East summit .

Earlier this week, the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright also saw Mr Mubarak So far the peace talks have made little progress; the Washington meeting will, among other things, cover the issue of Jerusalem and chances of another Israeli handover of parts of the occupied West Bank.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service