Palestinian leaders, including President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, converged on the Jordanian capital Wednesday for a landmark meeting of the central committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's (PLO) mainstream Fatah group, senior Palestinian officials told dpa. The meeting is the first to convene with the presence of all 16 members of the major policy-making panel since the PLO signed the milestone Oslo agreements with Israel in 1993. It is also the first time Jordan has allowed such a meeting to convene on its soil since 1970, when Jordanian troops fought fierce battles with PLO forces that ended with the ouster of all Palestinian guerrilla factions from the Hashemite Kingdom, dpa said. High on the agenda of the two-day meeting, which is due to kick off Thursday, are items like the future of the peace process with Israel and the election of a Palestinian Vice-President, it was reported. However, the conferees will also try to settle differences emanating from overlapping of duties between Foreign Minister Nasser al-Qidwa and head of the PLO's Political Department Farouk Kaddoumi, who was elected as Fatah chairman after the death of veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the end of last year, dpa concluded. --SP 2145 Local Time 1845 GMT
