MIDDLE EAST: A planned visit to Gaza this morning by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has been called off for security reasons.
The minister, who left for a tour of the Middle East last night, will now travel to Bethlehem instead for meetings with Palestinian leaders. In Bethlehem Mr Ahern will meet Rafiq Husseini, chief of staff to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. The president is in Addis Ababa, where he is attending the African Union summit.
Mr Ahern will also meet the independent Palestinian legislator Dr Ziad Abu-Amer. In line with European Union policy, however, Mr Ahern is not scheduled to meet any Hamas representatives.
Mr Ahern will have a working lunch today with the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, and hold talks with Yossi Beilin, leader of the opposition Meretz-Yachad party and one of the architects of the Oslo accords.
Mr Ahern will travel to Cairo tomorrow where he will meet the Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa. He then travels to Beirut, where he is scheduled to meet Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora.