RAMALLAH, Feb 7: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas will announce a ceasefire at a summit in Egypt on Tuesday, a Palestinian minister said.

"We have agreed to announce a ceasefire tomorrow at the summit," Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat said on Monday after meeting his Israeli counterpart to finalize details for the highest-level peace talks in almost four years.

An Israeli official declined comment.

Hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough were boosted on Monday when visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that Mahmoud Abbas and Ariel Sharon would separately visit the White House Next month or in March.

Condoleezza Rice also announced the appointment of a US general as Israeli-Palestinian security coordinator.

Mr Sharon has cast Tuesday's meeting as a discussion of security measures before an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip this summer.

Palestinians want the event to kickstart the roadmap to Palestinian statehood in Gaza and the West Bank.

Ms Rice said Mr Abbas and Mr Sharon had accepted separate invitations for talks in Washington with Bush but gave no specific dates.

"I conveyed invitations from President George Bush to Prime Minister Sharon and President Abbas for meetings with him in the spring and each has accepted," Ms Rice said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in Washington that Mr Bush was "pleased that they've accepted the invitation", saying the visits were likely to be in either March or April.

It will be the first such visit by a Palestinian Authority president since President Bush came to power.

Ms Rice, who held talks with Mr Sharon on Sunday, said she had made clear her disquiet over both the route of the West Bank barrier and Israel's continued settlement activity.

"It's well known that we have had concerns about the route of the fence, settlement activity and law on absentee landlords," she added in reference to a recently scrapped plan by Israel to seize land from Palestinians in east Jerusalem.

Mr Abbas had warm words for the Bush administration. "We would like to thank her (Rice) and President Bush for his many positive positions and for being enthusiastic, for helping the Palestinian people," he said.

Mr Abbas said the roadmap was the best way to realise Mr Bush's vision of two states living in peace side by side.-Reuters