Sources: King Hussein, Arafat agreed to confederation

Well-informed diplomatic sources in Abu Dhabi said that Jordan's King Hussein agreed before his death with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to establish a confederation between Jordan and the Palestinian state, when the latter is declared.

The Gulf News Agency quoted the United Arab Emirates UAE daily al-Itihad as saying in its Tuesday edition that Arafat had told several of his aides that the agreement was made in the presence of the US President Bill Clinton, on the sidelines of the Wye River negotiations in the US last year.

The paper added that the agreement was not limited to the main headlines, rather extended to the details of future relations between the two sides. The diplomatic sources did not clarify whether the two sides' agreement was verbal or written.