Palestinian leaders in Beirut on historic visit

Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman Mahmud Abbas shakes hands with a Palestinian boy, as Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud (R) looks on, during a visit to a cemetery in the Shatila refugee camp south of Beirut yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Palestine Liberation Organ-isation (PLO) chief Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Ahmed Qorei immediately went to lay wreathes at a Palestinian refugee camp cemetery south of Beirut.

Dozens of flag-waving refugees greeted them at Shatila, one of two camps where massacres took place during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

They are expected to meet later with President Emile Lahoud, parliament speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Omar Karameh and tour various Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and southern Lebanon.