RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz will meet Tuesday in a resumption of contacts that broke off following a suicide attack in Tel Aviv last month.
The meeting to discuss Israel's promised transfer of security control over five West Bank towns to the Palestinian Authority comes after talks between chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and aide of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Dov Weisglass.
A senior Palestinian official said Monday that interior minister Nasr Yussef, who has been designated Palestinian security chief by Abbas, would also attend Tuesday's meeting.
An Israeli security source said the meeting would serve to "relaunch the peace process, press the Palestinian Authority to battle against terrorism, and discuss a transfer of authority in the towns" of the West Bank."
Late Sunday, Erakat and Weisglass met to re-activate Israeli-Palestinian committees charged with studying the transfer of security control, the release of prisoners and Palestinians wanted by Israel, the source said.
"These committees will meet in the coming days," the source added.
The commander of Israeli forces in the West Bank, General Gadi Eizenkopf, also met Sunday with senior Palestinian security official General Hadj Ismael.
Such talks were the first moves to break the ice in contacts frozen last month by the Tel Aviv bombing that killed five Israelis.
03/07/2005 07:46 GMT