Israel has agreed to a long-delayed troop withdrawal from three West Bank cities, Israel Radio is reporting this evening.
Security sources said "an agreement was shaping up" for Israeli troops to withdraw from the West Bank town of Jericho on Wednesday, and from Tulkarm early next week.
Israel would also discuss a pullback from the town of Qalqilya next week, the sources said.
Israel Radio said Israel and the Palestinians had concluded the deal for a withdrawal from Jericho this week, and Tulkarm and Qalqilya next week.
But security sources said these agreement were not final. Israel had promised to withdraw troops from five West Bank cities in advance of a peace summit in Egypt on February 8th.
The security sources said Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Youssef were discussing the details of the planned pullbacks at a meeting near Tel Aviv, including how many checkpoints Israel would remove.
Palestinian officials had no immediate comment.
The pullback agreement came ahead of talks in Cairo planned for Tuesday where Abbas will seek to persuade Palestinian militant groups to formalise their agreement to a ceasefire with Israel.