MIDDLE EAST: Austria and EU leaders visit Middle East to narrow gaps between Israeli and Palestinian leaders ahead of peace conference

Foreign diplomats on Monday (September 3) visited the Mideast to narrow differences between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of the Mideast peace conference planned for November. Austrian Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbacher met Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem before a scheduled visit to Palestinian leaders on the West Bank on Tuesday (September 4) in an effort to lay groundwork for the conference. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana also met Livni on Monday. Then he went to the West Bank city of Ramallah. During a visit to the EU security headquarters in Ramallah, Solana said he wanted to help Palestinian leadership prepare for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. "I came here to work with the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Authority in order to have a good solid state the moment the two states arrive. We hope very much it will be soon," Solana told reporters. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said last week the Mideast conference would be a waste of time if Israel continued to seek only a broadbrush "declaration of principles." Israeli officials have used that phrase to describe what Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert might offer in answer to calls for rapid, final talks on establishing a Palestinian state.

ITN Source | September 3, 2007

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