Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas have accepted an Egyptian invitation to join a Middle East peace summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh next week.  

Their meeting during the summit would be the highest-level Israeli-Palestinian meeting in nearly four years of armed conflict.

The summit has been expected since Abbas, who was elected to succeed late Yasser Arafat last month, managed to coax a de facto truce from militants waging an uprising. Israeli responded by cutting back on military operations.

Sharon's office said the invitation to the summit was delivered by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, on a visit to Jerusalem.

However, an Egyptian official said it was too early to say there would be a summit in Egypt. There was no immediate comment from the Palestinians.

Committee to grant amnesty

Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to form a joint committee that will grant amnesty to Palestinian fugitives, according to a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official yesterday.

Amos Gilad, the Defense Ministry official, confirmed in an interview to Israel's Army Radio that cabinet ministers are set to approve the formation of the committee later this week.

The committee will approve understandings with Palestinian fugitives, who will be forced to hand in their weapons and sign a written agreement pledging not to carry out attacks against Israelis and Israeli targets, Gilad confirmed. In exchange, Israel will refrain from hunting down the fugitives.

Israel has vigorously hunted down fugitives during four years of fighting, either killing the militants or arresting them.

Dealing with the fugitives is one of the most sensitive issues in the current round of talks, which are meant to lead to a truce.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said repeatedly that he will not confront the militants, but prefers to cooperate with them.

One of the ideas for dealing with the fugitives is to fold them into the Palestinian security forces, Abbas' aides have said.

Gilad brushed off criticism that granting the fugitives amnesty would effectively mean that Israel had pardoned Palestinians responsible for killing Israelis.

"We have to include all the fugitives that will be neutralized from activity," Gilad said.

(China Daily February 3, 2005)