Last update - 00:00 09/01/2007
U.S. Secretary of State Rice to visit Israel as part of Mideast tour
By The Associated Press
Israel will be the first stop for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
when she sets out Friday on a weeklong tour of the Middle East and Europe.
Rice also will visit the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Germany and Britain, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday.
He said Rice will have extended discussions on "how to address and confront various threats" that exist in the Middle East. On the Israel-Palestinian front, she will seek ways to "exploit openings that we believe exist," he added.
Other issues on her agenda, he said, will be Lebanon, Iraq and the "common threat posed by Iran and other proponents of violent extremism."
In Kuwait, Rice will attend a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council that also will include participation by Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The trip is part of a long-promised effort to promote an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. McCormack said that issue "will not come to closure" during her travels.
He said Rice also will travel on a subsequent trip to Paris for a Lebanon donors conference on Feb. 24-25.