Arafat, Hawatemah meet in Amman

A Palestinian official said on Wednesday that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and chairman of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine Nayef Hawatemah met on Monday in Amman for the first time in five years.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said this meeting, the first since Arafat returned to the self-rule territories in 1994, was held on the sidelines of King Hussein's funeral.

An official in the DFLP, which takes Damascus as its headquarters, said on Monday that Hawatemah sought in the past to return to the self-rule territories, but Israel opposed that.