CAIRO: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is to hold talks with President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt on Thursday, a Palestinian diplomat said, at a time of crisis in the Middle East peace process.
Abbas is to brief Mubarak on "the latest contacts with the American administration concerning US efforts to freeze settlements and resume negotiations," ambassador Barakat Al-Farra told Egypt’s state news agency MENA.
The two leaders would discuss "measures which the Palestinian leadership will take in light of these contacts."
Washington admitted on Tuesday that it has dropped a demand that Israel renew a freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the Palestinian condition for any resumption of direct peace talks.
Abbas said on Wednesday the peace process was in crisis following the US announcement.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, meanwhile, urged the international community to call an "end game" and set clear deadlines for reaching a peace agreement.
"The Egyptian view is as follows: Let’s agree on an end game," Aboul Gheit said during a visit to Bulgaria. "The end game is that the international community … would agree on parameters for the settlement."
