Ramallah, West Bank, Dec 05: Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie left for Cairo after saying Egyptian-brokered talks between militant factions on reaching a ceasefire with Israel were going well, officials said. A close aide to Qurie said he would arrive today in the Egyptian capital where militant leaders on Thursday sat down to consider a mutual truce with Israel to help revive peace negotiations after three years of fighting.

''I think discussions between all the Palestinian groups in Cairo are going well ... I am optimistic, '' the moderate premier told reporters at his West Bank home earlier in the day.

Officials attending the talks said Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman urged 11 Palestine Liberation Organisation and two non-Plo Islamist groups to bury differences so the Palestinian cabinet could resume deadlocked talks with Israel. Suleiman told them not to leave Cairo without agreement among themselves.

A ceasefire three years after Palestinians launched an uprising is critical to salvaging a US-backed ''road map'' that calls for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war. Bureau Report