Arafat heads to France next Thursday

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat will head to France next Thursday to meet with French President Jacques Chirac and to participate in the annual conference of the UNESCO which will start tomorrow. The last time Arafat met with the French President was on June 30.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) said that Arafat's advisor and Minister of International Cooperation, Nabil Shaath, will meet with the French Foreign Minister Hubert Verdine in Paris. It added that France is keen on urging Europe to play a bigger role in the stalemate peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

It is expected that the French foreign minister will start his tour of the region next month, which is to begin with Egypt before the beginning of the Francophone Conference due to be held in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Verdine's tour was supposed to start last month but it was postponed because of the visit of the US Secretary of State to the region.

Verdine will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa. Verdine's discussions in Egypt will focus on the results of the peace talks between the PA and Israel.