WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush will visit the Mideast in early January as he presses the Israelis and Palestinians to restart moribund peace talks, the White House said Tuesday.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe would not release any details of Bush's itinerary. But an Israeli television station said the president would visit Israel.
Last week, Bush hosted a high-profile Mideast conference in Annapolis, Md., where Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told international backers and skeptical Arab neighbours that they were ready to resume bargaining toward achieving an independent Palestinian homeland.
Bush has held Mideast peacemaking at arms' length for most of his nearly seven years in office but argues that conditions in Israel and the Palestinian territories now are right for a more energetic role. He said Israeli and Palestinian leaders are ready to make peace, there is a wider and unifying fight against extremism fed by the Palestinian conflict and the world understands the urgency of acting now.
Fundamental differences have led to the collapse of previous peace efforts: the borders of a Palestinian state, the status of disputed Jerusalem and the rights of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
Israel said Tuesday it is seeking bids to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem neighbourhood, drawing Palestinian condemnations that the move is undermining the newly revived peace talks.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat sent an urgent message to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asking her to block the project from moving forward. "This is undermining Annapolis,'' he said.
Negotiating teams were to hold their first session in the region on Dec. 12, and Olmert and Abbas plan to continue one-on-one discussions they began earlier this year. Many of the same countries and organizations attending the meeting in Annapolis were scheduled to gather on Dec. 17 in Paris to raise money for the cash-strapped Palestinians.
