US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit the Middle East next week to try to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace despite the recognition that there is little chance of a deal this year, diplomats said today.
The State Department said Ms Rice would leave on Wednesday, the day after the US presidential election, and travel to Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Israel, whose parliamentary election has effectively put the peace process on hold.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Rice would "discuss efforts to achieve positive and lasting peace in the region" but he made no mention of US President George W. Bush's goal, announced at last year's Annapolis, Maryland, peace conference, of securing a peace deal by the end of the year.
Mr Wood acknowledged that an Israeli parliamentary election, which is expected to be held on February 10th, had "complicated" the the peace effort. A senior Bush administration official said the Israeli election meant that a deal was all but impossible this year.
The official said the United States would not outline its own ideas for how to solve the six-decade conflict, saying that the Bush administration did not wish to do anything that might harm the peace talks.
The State Department said Rice was expected to meet the Quartet of Middle East mediators that includes the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.
Reuters