JERUSALEM, Dec 31 (AFP) - Israeli President Moshe Katsav has been invited to address the Palestinian legislative council, his spokeswoman Elisheva Braun-Lapidot said here Monday.
"President Katsav has been invited by the former (Arab-Israeli Labour party) deputy Abdel Wahab Darawshe to express support at the Palestinian legislative council for the idea of a one-year ceasefire with the Palestinians," she said.
"President Katsav is ready to go to the end of the world to promote peace. He considered the idea (of speaking before the Palestinian council) to be interesting and he wants to talk about it with the prime minister," Ariel Sharon, she said.
Israel public radio said earlier Monday that Darawshe's idea to invite Katsav had already won the preliminary agreement of the Palestinian Authority.
Darawshe later confirmed to AFP that he had "suggested that Katsav delivers a speech to the Palestinian legislative council in which he would regret the deaths of victims on both sides and call for a return to the situation prevailing before the onset of the intifada (uprising) in order to allow a relaunch of peace negotiations."
Darawshe said "it is now up to Sharon to give his green light to this initiative."
The Palestinian legislative council, which serves as a parliament for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is based in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
The presidency in Israel is essentially an honorary and neutral position, but Katzav, a former backbench MP from Sharon's right-wing Likud party, has provoked debate on two recent occasions.
He intervened unsuccessfully on December 23 to ask Sharon to go back on his decision to ban Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from making his traditional visit to Bethelehem for Christmas mass.
He then said Israel had no place preventing Arafat from leaving Ramallah, where he has been marooned since December 3 by Israeli forces.
Katsav also caused a stir for his recent visit to Umm el-Fahm in the Galilee region of northern Israel to participate in a ceremony commemorating two of the 13 Arab-Israelis killed by police during violent protests in October 2000.
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