Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat held on Thursday talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's Political Advisor Osma Al Baz at Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.  

Official sources at Arafat's headquarters told reporters in Ramallah that the meeting aims at pushing forward the stalled peace process, and the possibility of declaring a hudna, or truce, with Israel.

The talks between Arafat and El Baz focused on resuming the Egyptian mediation efforts among the Palestinian national and Islamic factions to declare a truce with Israel, the sources further explained.

El Baz arrived in Ramallah at noon, and met with Arafat as well as top Palestinian National Authority (PNA) leaders aiming at discussing the possibilities of moving forward the peace process with Israel.

His visit is the first official Egyptian visit to the Palestinian territories since the assault on Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher by Palestinian Moslem fanatics as he was on his way to pray at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

An Egyptian delegation, which arrived in Gaza two weeks ago, brought a written letter from the Egyptian chief of security intelligence Omer Suleiman with weak US guarantees that Israel would stop its attacks on the Palestinians.

Palestinian sources noted that El Baz's visit won't be the last visit of Egyptian officials, adding that Maher and Suleiman are scheduled to visit in the coming few days in the Palestinian territories for the same purpose. 

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2004)