Arafat to visit Moscow

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has announced that Israeli - Palestinian negotiations are at a very "fragile" stage. In a statement he made on Wednesday prior to the meeting at Erez barrier, Arafat added that Israel until now did not give any indication of accepting the US initiative for the second phase of redeployment in the West Bank. Arafat said he will, by the end of the meeting, head for Moscow to hold talks with the Russian President Boris Yeltsin on the possibility of Russia's participation in the efforts exerted to give the Middle East peace process a push forward.