Arafat attends arab summit follow-up committee meeting

Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, is expected in Cairo to attend on Thursday an extraordinary meeting of the follow-up committee, set up last October by the Arab summit.

The committee, comprising the foreign ministers of Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia and Bahrain, will look into the Clinton's settlement plan for the Middle East, said Arab diplomatic sources in the Egyptian capital.

According to the sources, Arafat has asked that the meeting, originally scheduled to be held at the level of permanent delegates of the committee member states to the Arab league, be held at the level of foreign ministers in view of the delicate stage in the peace process.

The committee, which last met in Damascus, was scheduled to meet this Jan.10-11 in Tunis and hold a third meeting in Amman next March before the Arab summit slated for the same month in Jordan.