US President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will meet at the Israel-Gaza border today, Netanyahu's office said yesterday.
''The prime minister spoke this evening with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and finalised that the trilateral meeting will take place tomorrow at 8 o'clock (0600 GMT) at the Erez Crossing,'' Netanyahu's office said in a statement hours after the Palestinian leadership reaffirmed the annulment of clauses in the PLO charter calling for Israel's destruction.
A White House spokesman confirmed in Jerusalem that the meeting would take place. Mr Clinton was due to end a three-day visit to Israel and Palestinian-controlled territory today.
Yesterday, watched by Mr Clinton, leading Palestinians stood and voted by a show of hands in Gaza to reaffirm nullification of the offending provisions of the 1964 charter. Netanyahu, who had demanded a full-fledged vote, welcomed the move but said Palestinians still had to meet a string of conditions before the US-brokered Wye River land-for-security deal could get back on track.
Palestinians were widely expected to press at the trilateral meeting for Israel to release so-called ''political prisoners''. At a news conference yesterday, Netanyahu said he would stand firm in his refusal to free detainees with ''blood on their hands''.
''I hope this will close this chapter forever,'' said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as Mr Clinton sat alongside him in Gaza.
Palestinians look to Clinton's visit for a morale boost in their quest for an independent state and Arafat heaped praise on the American president for helping pull together the Wye River land-for-security agreement two months ago.
A senior adviser to Mr Netanyahu said the show of hands was acceptable.
''The issue, as far as we are concerned, is now off the table,'' Mr David Bar-Illan said.
The Islamic militant group Hamas denounced the vote as illegitimate. ''Today's meeting in Gaza was an orchestrated political parade,'' said Jordan-based spokesman Ibrahim Ghosheh.
On the first visit of a US president to Palestinian territory, Mr Clinton told Palestinians they were free to ''determine their own destiny on their own land.''
Some of the delegates at the Palestine National Council session in Gaza were men who once carried out terrorist attacks aimed at destroying Israel. ''We are serious and willing to go ahead and achieve peace for both Israel and the Palestinians,'' said Abu Sharif, who plotted airliner hijackings in the 1970s and recruited the terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
Others in the audience included Mohammed Oudeh, implicated by Israeli and American intelligence experts in planning the botched hostage-taking at the 1972 Munich Olympics that left 11 Israeli athletes dead.
Mr Clinton, trying to ignore the growing impeachment crisis at home, applauded Arafat for making bold moves toward peace with Israel and said it was time to think harder about ways to cement the peace and ensure a more prosperous future for all Palestinians.
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