Arafat makes surprise visit to Egypt for talks with Mubarak

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat arrived in Egypt today for consultations with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the peace process, in the wake of an unsuccessful visit by US peace process envoy Dennis Ross to Palestine, Israel and Egypt.

President Arafat has been pushing Egypt to call for an Arab summit to deal with the current peace process, and Palestinian sources say he is expected to repeat this call during his consultations.

Describing the situation in the region, US State Department spokesman James Rubin said yesterday that the peace process "is in dire straits," due to the fact that "there hasn't been any movement for nearly a year now, that there is no direct negotiation, there's no progress on the multilateral track, there's no progress on the Syrian track."

"Ambassador Ross is expected back here tomorrow, at which time he will brief the secretary and the president. And then we'll figure out where to go from here," Rubin said.

During his meeting with Ross, President Mubarak expressed to the US envoy Egyptian ideas of what should be done and what should be avoided regarding the deadlocked peace process.