The momentum gathering in favour of the meeting follows prolonged internal Israeli squabbling that has repeatedly delayed the meeting and angered the US.

Earlier this week Ariel Sharon, Israeli prime minister, called off plans for the meeting, citing a prerequisite of 48 hours of total quiet.

Although Mr Peres on Monday accepted Mr Sharon's conditions, Israeli media reports said the two had actually agreed to allow the meeting to go ahead, and Mr Arafat said the talks would take place within days.

Mr Peres told the Financial Times on Monday the obstacles were now mostly "technical" and related to the venue and time of the meeting. "There is a feeling that this can help the construction of the necessary [US-led] coalition," he said.

But Mr Peres played down expectations for any peace breakthrough at the meeting, even though Israel and the Palestinians have largely agreed on several elements of restoring security and improving living conditions for the Palestinians.

Even though the overall level of violence has declined dramatically in recent days, the fragility of the truce was demonstrated on Monday morning when Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli woman in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank.

Islamic Jihad, the radical Palestinian militant group, claimed responsibility. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt on Monday described Israel's decision to postpone negotiations with the Palestinians as a "very silly act," Victor Mallet reports from Paris.

Mr Mubarak made his comment after meeting Jacques Chirac, the French president, in Paris. Arab leaders such as Mr Mubarak and Rafik Hariri, Lebanese prime minister, have condemned the attacks but urged the US to address what they see as the underlying causes of anti-western Islamic violence - particularly the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Many Arab leaders believe the Americans should do more to squeeze political and territorial concessions from the Israelis.