Arafat to meet with Aznar next week

A Spanish diplomatic source said on Friday that it is scheduled that the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat will be meeting with the Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in Spain next week in order to discuss the situation in the Middle East.

News reports quoted a diplomatic source as saying that the time and place of the meeting were not precisely set because of the problems impeding the arrangements of Arafat's travel, but it is expected that the meeting will be held in an isolated place in Madrid, and more expectedly in the southern al-Andalus district.

Israel, however, has prevented Arafat from leaving the town of Ramulla in the West Bank since December 2001.