Arafat in Moscow today

The Palestinian president Yasser Arafat arrived in Moscow on Monday. News reports said that Arafat will ask the Russian President Vladimir Putin for an active Russian participation in maintaining a settlement for the Middle East question while Russia seems so far hesitant to take an initiative.

The Palestinian ambassador in Moscow Kheiri al-Areidi said that Arafat who will also meet with the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Alexy II " wants to study with Russia the Mitchell report and convening a new summit similar to that of Sharm al-Sheikh."

The Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov said that Moscow " supports the convening of an international meeting from which emerges mechanism for implementing the Egyptian- Jordanian initiative and Mitchell report."

On the other hand; the Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres on Monday for the second time within 24 hours met with the Arafat. The meeting was attended by the US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and the American Consul in Jerusalem.