RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 23 (AFP) - Gaza strongman and former security minister Mohammed Dahlan held fence-mending talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat here Monday ahead of a widely expected invitation to rejoin the government, officials said.
Dahlan spent some two hours at Arafat's West Bank leadership compound, lunching with the veteran leader and holding talks with his senior aide Nabil Abu Rudeina, the officials said.
He later met Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei and sources said the premier was likely to ask him to join his cabinet soon.
Abu Rudeina told reporters that Dahlan was expected to return to the Muqataa for further talks in the evening but gave no details about what had been discussed.
Dahlan, who left the cabinet when then premier Mahmud Abbas resigned last September, has denied claims that he was the instigator of recent large-scale protests in the Gaza Strip opposing corruption and demanding reforms.
Although he has been careful not to directly criticise Arafat, he has attacked the "intolerable" corruption within the Palestinian leadership.
Arafat is widely expected to bring Dahlan back into government in a bid to restore law and order in Gaza and keep a potential rival onside.
Dahlan remains immensely powerful in Gaza and, despite reservations about his ambitions, Arafat might hope that he could help restore security in the territory.
Arafat himself is unable to travel to Gaza, having been confined to Ramallah by Israeli forces for nearly three years.
A source close to Dahlan described the meeting with Arafat as "a chance to make peace" and predicted that Qorei would formally invite him to return to the cabinet.
"Qorei may ask Dahlan to participate in his government -- maybe the interior ministry," he told AFP.
Senior government sources said last week that Dahlan was on the verge of being brought back into government, possibly in a new wide-ranging portfolio.
The prospect of a comeback by Dahlan comes after sources revealed that Arafat was making efforts to repair his relationship with Abbas, a year after their acrimonious split over a battle for control of the security services.