Palestinian president to visit Lebanon (AFP)
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BEIRUT (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will begin a two-day visit to Lebanon on Thursday, a government official said on Sunday.
"The visit has two aspects to it. It will address Lebanese-Palestinian relations and inter-Palestinian relations," the official told AFP of the country's large refugee community.
Abbas, whose last visit to Beirut in 2004 was the first for a Palestinian official in 22 years, will meet President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and parliament speaker Nabih Berri as well as Palestinian officials.
An estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in 12 camps in Lebanon.
Tensions boiled over last year when Fatah al-Islam, which adopted an ideology inspired by Al-Qaeda, waged a deadly 15-week conflict against the Lebanese army in the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.
More than 400 people, including 168 soldiers, were killed in the fighting which left the camp almost entirely destroyed.
Arab and European leaders held a donors conference in Vienna in June to raise funds for Nahr al-Bared's reconstruction.
Security-related incidents in other camps in recent months have raised fears of renewed violence.
Lebanon on August 28.(AFP/File/Sameh Sherif)" class="newsimage" />