In Feb.2 , In an effort to make progress in the stalled Middle East peace talks, Egypt invited representatives from Israel, Jordan, and the Palestine Liberation Organization to a summit meeting in Cairo. The meeting was the first regional summit in which an Israeli official participated. After nearly six hours of talks, the leaders issued a joint statement in which they agreed to forge ahead with efforts for peace, condemned political violence, and called for more international assistance for the Palestinian Authority, the governing body in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The peace talks, which began in 1992, had been threatened by increasing Islamic militant attacked against Israelis.