Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer is holding a meeting this evening with Palestinian interior minister Abdel Razaq al-Yahya.
The two ministers are to discuss plans for a phased withdrawal from re-occupied Palestinian areas where calm has prevailed and where the Palestinian security forces can guarantee a clampdown on anti-Israeli attacks.
The partial pullback, dubbed the "Gaza First" plan, is expected to start in the Gaza Strip, and possibly in the southern West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Hebron.
Ben Eliezer had first presented the plan to Yahya in Jerusalem on August 5th and the two had been set to meet again Thursday but the talks were postponed.
Despite Palestinian fears that Israel could try to chalk up credit for a Gaza pullback while maintaining its stranglehold on the re-occupied West Bank, Israeli officials said the plan could also apply to Bethlehem and even Hebron.
Under the scheme, Palestinian security forces would take control of the areas vacated by the withdrawing Israeli forces, who would move back to positions held before the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, started in September 2000.
AFP