TUNIS, February 25, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accepted on Friday, February 25, an unprecedented invitation from Tunisian President Zine El Abidin Ben Ali to visit the Arab Muslim country to attend a UN conference on information technology.

"The prime minister received a letter inviting him to attend a conference in Tunisia on scientific cooperation and plans to make the visit," a source in Sharon's office told Agence France Presse (AFP).

The source stressed that the invitation was extended by the Tunisian President himself to attend the second World Summit on the Information Society, due in the Arab country in mid-November.

The visit is expected to draw criticism in Arab and Muslim countries, where many people still believe Sharon is a war criminal for his role in the massacres in Palestinian refugee camps in Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon.

Sharon is also called the champion of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian demands, despite the UN resolutions calling them illegal. He also refused the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland seized for the creation of Israel in 1948.

The Israeli premier triggered the Palestinian Intifadah after his visit to Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, in September 2001.

Mark Regev, the spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, earlier said that Ben Ali has invited Sharon to attend the information technology convention in his country, according to the Associated Press.

The invitation comes on the heels of renewed hopes for Middle East peace following the Sharm El Sheikh summit in which Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared a mutual ceasefire.

Israel Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who recently expressed hope that diplomatic ties could be established between Israel and "at least another ten Arab countries", held secret talks with his Tunisian counterpart Abdelbaki Hermassi in recent months, the Israeli Yediot Aharonot said on Friday, AFP reported.

A Sharon trip to Tunisia would mark the first visit by an Israeli leader to that north African country, which was the longtime home of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Tunisia broke off diplomatic ties with Israel after the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifadah in September 2000, although some commercial relations continue.

Burhan Baysas, a Tunisian journalist, told Aljazeera channel that the invitation was a protocol step as Tunisia plays host to an international conference held under the UN auspices.