Palestinian and Israeli officials said today that President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres planned to meet tomorrow in an effort to turn a fragile ceasefire into a lasting truce.
In a tentative sign the truce may be taking root, members of the militant Hamas group and other Palestinian officials said that Hamas was willing to suspend suicide attacks inside Israel in the coming period unless it was provoked by the Jewish state.
The international community has been pressuring Mr Arafat and Mr Peres to hold the long-overdue meeting as soon as possible in order to strengthen the five-day-old ceasefire.
A senior Israeli political source said a very successful preparatory meeting between Mr Peres, a small Israeli delegation and senior Palestinian negotiators took place today.
"If there are no exceptional security incidents, the meeting will take place", the source said.
It was unclear where tomorrow's meeting would be held.
Mr Arafat visited Saudi Arabia today to brief Saudi leaders on the latest developments in the Middle East crisis. He was due to travel to Syria on Tuesday for an official visit that had been postponed after the attacks on New York and Washington.
Mr Peres and Mr Arafat, both Nobel Prize winners, have met several times during the Palestinian revolt.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo listed key issues for the success of the meeting: a timetable for the implementation of a pair of US-led truce-to-talks plans under international supervision, the lifting of the Israeli blockade on Palestinian areas, a freeze of the establishment of a buffer zone on a section of the border between the West Bank and Israel proper, and an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem.
Tomorrow's talks received a boost after a senior Hamas official indicated the group may cease suicide attacks.
"The Hamas movement and its military wing don't live in a vacuum; they take decisions based on the interests of the Palestinian people", said the official.
"Is it in the interest of the people to carry out martyrdom attacks now? Maybe not", he told reporters.
Hamas opposes peace talks with Israel and has carried out a wave of suicide attacks inside the Jewish state, killing scores of Israelis.
Though Mr Arafat has asked for a total cessation of hostilities, Hamas and Palestine Liberation Organisation factions have decided to acquiesce everywhere except in Israeli-controlled areas in the occupied West Bank.