Palestinian delegation to Washington on Thursday

The secretary of the executive committee of the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas and top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat are to head to Washington on Thursday for an official visit which has been criticized by Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy, who called it a Palestinian tactic to pressure Israel.

Meanwhile, Erekat stated that the visit comes in light of Palestinian - US bilateral ties and that US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was the one who directed the invitiation for this visit to the Palestinian leadership.

A Palestinian source confirmed to ArabicNews.com that there is an Israeli initiative to confirm the achieving of progress before Albright visits the region, to convince the whole world that the Palestinians and Israelis are achieving progress.