TAKING SHAPE

For the first time since the Arab summit conference in Fez, in 1982, there is some reason for the current feeling in the region that the deadlocked Middle East peace process could again begin to move ahead. The proposals recently put forward by President Hosni Mubarak triggered off intense diplomatic activity throughout the area as well as serving to re-focus world attention on the central issues of the Arab-Israeli dispute. Mubarak's proposals, first aired in an interview last month with the 'New York Times', called for a dialogue between the United States and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation which Egypt would help to form. Then, at a later stage, Israel would be invited to join the talks. Subsequently, in the third stage of the Egyptian plan, an international conference would be held to come to a final settlement.