Arafat meets Peres

Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat met last night in Belgium as part of a European Union effort to "build confidence" between the two sides.

The two met for an hour and a half in the office of Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt after Israel put off plans to pull its tanks out of a West Bank Palestinian city because of a bombing attack on the Jewish settlement of Shaked.

But the meeting, part of EU efforts to revive the Middle East peace process, came after the Israeli foreign minister has been sidelined by Ariel Sharon and Israeli officials have said there are "no decisions, no negotiations" with the Palestinian leader.