Israel has agreed to Bill Clinton's proposal to resume peace talks with the Palestinians and will send negotiators to Washington in the next few days.
The decision was made after a brief meeting of Israel's Security Cabinet tonight, said Amit Zimmer, a spokesman for Transport Minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who participated in the session.
The decision came only a day after Prime Minister Ehud Barak said his government had cut off all contacts with Palestinian officials adding that Israel would focus on suppressing Palestinian violence in the weeks up to the country's February 6 election.
Despite Mr Barak's tough talk, a last-minute peace deal with the Palestinians was widely seen as his last chance to win re-election.
The leader of the hawkish coalition, Ariel Sharon, commands a double-digit lead over Mr Barak who has lost much voter support in the past three months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
Earlier, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat headed back to the Middle East after talks with President Clinton which the White House said had produced a "move forward" toward peace with Israel.
A White House spokesman said Mr Arafat had accepted Mr Clinton's proposals as the basis for discussing an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. But Mr Arafat still had reservations about the initiative after his talks with Mr Clinton yesterday, the spokesman said.
Palestinian sources said Mr Arafat would accept Clinton's proposals only if changes were made and certain conditions were met. An Israeli political source said Mr Barak, who has already accepted Mr Clinton's ideas in outline, believed there had been no major breakthrough.
"It is important to move the peace process forward," Mr Arafat told reporters as he prepared to leave Washington.
He gave no details of his talks with Mr Clinton, but senior Palestinian officials said privately they were unhappy that the Americans had announced that Mr Arafat had accepted Clinton's proposals.
White House spokesman Jake Siewert, announcing what he called a move forward, also gave no details and said: "There's still a lot of work to do."
Meanwhile, Israel will send a member of its negotiating team to Washington to consult on a possible peace breakthrough with senior US officials, possibly including President Bill Clinton, the White House said this evening.
P.J. Crowley, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed to send the representative during the second of two telephone calls with Mr Clinton. Mr Crowley said the talks with the Israeli representative would take place either late tomorrow or on Friday. He declined to identify the Israeli but reports from the region said it might be senior peace negotiator Gilead Sher.
"You can be sure that we're going to work as hard on this as we can until we are either successful or we run out of time," Mr Crowley told reporters.
PA, Reuters