"The presidential elections will be held before Jan. 9. The leadership will meet to decide and check the exact dates," Qurei told reporters a day after Arafat was buried in his Ramallah compound, where he had been besieged by Israel for over three years.

Palestinian interim President Rawhi Fattouh, who presided over the PNA meeting Saturday, is said to be going to issue within days a presidential decree setting a date for the elections.

Fattouh, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (parliament), was sworn in Thursday as the temporary president to replace late Arafat for 60 days, a time period set out by the Palestinian basic law.

Arafat, who led the Palestinians for four decades, passed away at 3:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) Thursday at a French military hospital outside Paris, where he had received medical treatment for a mysterious illness since Oct. 29.

Arafat's death was mourned in many parts of the world, since Palestinians and many other Arabs as well as the international community consider him as one of the greatest leaders ever in the Arab world.

The coming presidential elections will be a key test for the Palestinians, who want a smooth transition of power after Arafat and hope for renewed international involvement in Mideast peacemaking.

To rally international support for a smooth power transfer, Qurei discussed Saturday with visiting European Union (EU) Foreign policy chief Javier Solana over the coming elections.

Highlighting the European role in creating a favorable atmosphere that would lead to a smooth process, Qurei called for measures to facilitate the elections including the Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities and villages so that the Palestinians could head for the voting centers.

Solana promised the European help for the poll, but cautioned that the Palestinian authorities should achieve a better situationin order for the elections to take place.

Egypt, a major political power in the Middle East, also offered help in peace-making, with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit promising Saturday that he will visit Israel on Nov. 24 to help restart the stalled peace process.

During the visit, Abul Gheit is expected to discuss with his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom on a planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and ways to reactivate the Palestinian-Israeli peace track.

Gheit also said that his country is likely to host a meeting of the international "Quartet" on the sidelines of a global conference on Iraq on Nov. 22-23, to address the issue of the Middle East peace process.

Abul Gheit was quoted as saying that a meeting of the "Quartet",which brings together the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, might provide an opportunity to push forward the stalled Mideast peace process.

Jordan's King Abdullah on Saturday urged the United States to push Israel and the Palestinians to implement the "road map" peaceplan, saying the death of Arafat had created an opportunity.

"The Palestinians have lost a leader who kept their hope of independence alive for more than half a century," he wrote in a newspaper commentary. "Now, an opportunity exists to honor the best of that legacy, in a new drive for progress and peace."

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier on Saturday urged the creation of an independent Palestinian state as soon as possible, even with "temporary" borders, and called on the United States and Europe to work urgently toward brokering the Middle East peace.

US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns said Saturday in Cairo that the United States is committed to realizing a two-state vision of the Mideast peace process. He also promised to persuade the Israelis to allow the Palestinian elections to go on smoothly and to encourage Israel to implement their planned withdrawal.