The question of further Israeli withdrawals from reoccupied Palestinian lands will be on the agenda, the office said.

The issue of freeing Palestinians detained in Israeli jails will also be discussed, information minister Nabil Amr said, following the weekly meeting of the Palestinian cabinet.

The meeting was suggested during talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmud Abbas, in Jerusalem on Tuesday, at which both Dahlan and Mofaz were both present.

Under the terms of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, Israel began a partial withdrawal from certain areas of the Gaza Strip last Sunday. It pulled out of Bethlehem in the West Bank on Wednesday.

Control reverted to the Palestinians with the responsibility to insure that the areas would not be used as a launchpad for anti-Israeli attacks.

The initiative is part of the peace process laid down in the so-called roadmap, which is intended to lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state by 2005.

Palestinian movements, including the hardline Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, declared last Sunday a ceasefire of at least three-months but said it hinged on a number of conditions, including Israel freeing thousands of Palestinian detainees.

Late Friday the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee met with leader Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters, where he has been confined by the Israeli army since December 2001.

The committee rejected a recent statement by Sharon that he would allow Arafat to go to Gaza City. On Tuesday at a meeting with Abbas, Sharon refused a request to allow the veteran Palestinian leader to move freely, according to a source close to Sharon.

WAR.WIRE