By DPA
Washington : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the Middle East on a trip that begins Oct 14 and includes stops in Egypt and Jordan.
Rice will also visit Israel and the West Bank during a weeklong trip ahead of US plans to host a conference of the countries in the region aimed at making progress in the peace process.
“The secretary supports these efforts and stands ready to assist the parties as they work through these issues,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
No dates have been set for the conference, but it is expected to take place in late November. There has also been speculation about whether Syria will attend. Syria has cast doubt on the usefulness of the conference.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Syria would be invited because of its role in the Arab League.
Rice heads to the region as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have stepped up contact to try to lay the groundwork for serious negotiations to resolve the conflict and create a Palestinian state.
Rice will arrive in the Middle East from Moscow, where she and Defence Secretary Robert Gates will be meeting with their Russian counterparts, Sergey Lavrov and Anatoliy Serdyukov, to try to smooth over a diplomatic rift caused by US plans to deploy a missile-defence system to Poland and the Czech Republic.