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MOSCOW (JTA) — Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat met this week with Russian President Boris Yeltsin to discuss Russian-Palestinian relations and the Middle East peace process.

Arafat, who arrived Tuesday in Moscow for a two-day visit, was also scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov and Gennady Seleznyov, the speaker of the Duma, the lower house of Parliament.

When he greeted Arafat, who last visited Moscow three years ago, Yeltsin called him "a friend of the Russian people" and the "legitimately elected leader of the Palestinian people."

During their meeting, Arafat invited the Russian president to visit the West Bank town of Bethlehem for the celebration of Christianity's 2,000th anniversary.

Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Moscow on March 10.

Neo-Nazi sentenced for anti-Semitic acts

BONN (JTA) — A Berlin court has sentenced a neo-Nazi activist to one year in prison for inciting racial discrimination and circulating anti-Semitic propaganda.

The court called 25-year-old Hans-Christian Wendt, a leading member of a right-wing group known as The Nationals, a "spiritual arsonist and a leading figure of the neo-Nazi scene in Berlin and Brandenburg."

When Wendt was arrested at his home, police confiscated large quantities of Holocaust denial literature and 50 books containing instructions on how to win support for neo-Nazi ideas.

The court labeled the material "a dangerous attempt to justify the mass-killing of the Jews."

Croatian head seeks relations with Israel

ZAGREB, Croatia (JPS) — Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, boycotted by Israel because of an allegedly anti-Semitic book, is seeking full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

Tudjman said Croatia wants to establish ties in many areas, particularly in defense.

Last month, Tudjman published the English-language edition of his book, retitled "Horrors of War."

"We omitted parts that were delicate and even irritating to a portion of those Jewish readers who didn't read all the book but who heard about the book or came across excerpts that came from Serbian circles inimical to Croatia and Tudjman," he said.

Israeli officials say they are in no rush to establish ties with Zagreb.