Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met late on Friday in Lisbon and discussed how to end the Middle East conflict, said reports.
During a dinner at the residence of Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, Peres said Israel was eager to see implementation of a US-led peace plan.
Friday's meeting was the first between Arafat and an Israeli cabinet member since February elections that brought rightist Ariel Sharon to power in Israel.
But Peres stressed that a first condition had to be achieved -- seven days without violence in the West Bank and Gaza, said Haaretz newspaper.
"This train will not leave the station without an end to violence," a source close to Peres quoted him as saying.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell brokered a deal on Thursday requiring a seven-day test period of calm, to be followed by a six-week cooling-off period that would put the peace plan into motion.
Arafat told the foreign minister that the Palestinians were trying to halt the unrest, the source said.
However, they needed Israel to help by improving conditions for Palestinians, such as lifting blockades on Palestinian-ruled areas.
Arafat said such moves "would make it easier for them (the Palestinian Authority) to bring an end to violence", the source said.
Peres and Arafat are in Lisbon to attend the 50th anniversary of the Socialist International, an association of labor and socialist parties worldwide of which Guterres is president.
A spokesman for the Socialist International said their meeting lasted two and a half hours and the atmosphere was cordial, according to Reuters.
A spokesman for Peres, Yoram Dori, said the foreign minister and Arafat had attended a dinner at Guterres' residence, but provided no details. Arafat aides declined to comment.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjorn Jagland, who is the chairman of Socialist International's Middle East committee, also attended the dinner, Dori said.
Arafat and Peres are expected to address the Socialist International conference on Saturday, Haaretz said - Albawaba.com
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