Haartez: Peres meets with Palestinian finance minister

The Israeli daily Haartez said on Monday that the Israeli army leadership has reached a conclusion that the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will be out of office within 6 months and therefore Israel has no need to expel him from the Palestinian territories.

A senior military source told Ha'aretz that "chances are increasing that within six months, Arafat's standing will have declined so much that he won't be able to prevent a new, pragmatic leadership from emerging, which will lead the Palestinians to a compromise with Israel."

Meantime, a Palestinian official announced that the Palestinian minister of finance Salaam Fayyad met on Monday with the Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres.