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Arafat goes to

Alexandria to

meet Mubarak

TABA (Egypt): PLO head Yasser Arafat left the Red Sea resort of Taba on Tuesday after talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and flew to Alexandria to confer with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Peres and Arafat met in Taba for five hours on Monday night in an effort to break a deadlock on expanding Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank.

"I can say yesterday was a positive session. It was a positive meeting. I'm going to see his excellency President Hosni Mubarak and will return today (to Taba) for negotiations," Arafat told reporters as he left Taba.

Asked if he thought the PLO and Israel might achieve a breakthrough, Arafat said: "We hope so."

Palestinian self-rule began in most of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho in May 1994. It was to begin expanding into the rest of the West Bank more than a year ago, but Israeli security fears delayed the process.

The sides are now pushing for an accord to implement the West Bank stage of their 1993 framework peace deal but disagree on key issues such as access to scarce water supplies and security arrangements.-Reuter