More Progress

I think this last sentence is most telling.

SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt, Feb. 8 - Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and Ariel Sharon, prime minister of Israel, held summit talks at this Egyptian resort on Tuesday - the highest-level meeting between the sides in four years - and declared a truce in hostilities.

Mr. Abbas said he and Mr. Sharon "have jointly agreed to cease all acts of violence against Israelis and Palestinians everywhere," while Mr. Sharon said they "agreed that all Palestinians will stop all acts of violence against all Israelis everywhere, and in parallel, Israel will cease all its military activity against all Palestinians everywhere."

Officials said Israel would also pull back its troops from five West Bank cities - Jericho, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Tulkarm and Qalqilya - in the next three weeks and stop the arrests and assassinations of top militants if they agree to put down their weapons.

There was an immediate reminder of the fragility of those declarations when spokesmen for the radical Palestinian group Hamas said the truce was not binding on them.

The summit meeting on the shores of the Red Sea was nonetheless filled with the symbolism of renewed hopes, as the Israeli and Palestinian leaders sat at a round table with their host, the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, and King Abdullah II of Jordan.

In the hall, the Israeli flag was displayed next to the Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian flags.