El-Baz to visit Barak, Arafat

Osama El-Baz, the political advisor to the Egyptian president, arrived today in Ramallah, where he met with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Palestinian officials. El-Baz is alo scheduled to meet tonight with a number of Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister David Levy.

Meanwhile, Israeli official sources hailed the role played by the Egyptian administration in its attempts to reconcile the Palestinian and Israeli views concerning the implementation of the Wye accord.

This comes as Israeli Prime Minsiter Ehud Barak notified his Cabinet in its meeting that if an agreement was reached, the official endorsement of this agreement would take place in Egypt in the attendance of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright If an agreement is not reached between the two parties, Barak said Israel will implement the articles of the Wye agreement, adding that this will be against the mutual interest the two sides.