Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed to meet in Egypt on Monday in a bid to end the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades.

In announcing that he would attend the talks, President Bill Clinton said the situation in the Mideast “appears to be calmer.” But he cautioned that “the path ahead is difficult.” THE SUMMIT WAS arranged after Arafat apparently dropped his demand that had been a deal-breaker — that there first be an international commission of inquiry into the violence. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, leading world efforts to stop 16 days of clashes that have killed nearly 100 people and wrecked peacemaking, said the two sides would meet, without conditions, at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will host the talks. A top Palestinian aide said Saturday that Arafat will fly to Egypt on Sunday for talks with Mubarak ahead of Monday’s Israeli-Palestinian summit. Arafat’s most senior aide, Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, said that Arafat would meet Mubarak in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh resort and fly back to Gaza on the same day. An Egyptian presidential source earlier said that Arafat had secretly visited Egypt on Saturday and conferred with Mubarak. Palestinian officials denied that Arafat had left Gaza.