Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this evening announced plans to hold a second summit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in an effort to boost deadlocked peace moves before a planned Gaza pullout.
The statement from Mr Sharon's office that the talks would take place on June 19 th, came hours before Israel was to release 400 Palestinian prisoners.
The two leaders last met on February 8th in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where they called a halt to over four years of fighting in a deal that has drastically cut violence in the region.
But efforts to arrange a new summit had stumbled over Israel's complaints that Mr Abbas has failed to disarm militants and Palestinian demands for Israel to pull troops away from more West Bank towns and to free more prisoners.
Aides to both leaders finally agreed to set a date for talks six days after Mr Abbas won new US assurances in a May 26th meeting with President Bush in Washington, who pledged $50 million in aid and urged both sides to make peace moves.