U.S. envoy kicks off visit to Israel with Barak meeting

The United States envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, kicked off a visit to Israel on Wednesday with a meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

The envoy met with Barak in his Tel Aviv home shortly after flying into Israel from Tunisia for the second leg of a Middle East tour.

A statement from Barak's office said he told Mitchell it was possible and necessary (for Israel and the U.S.) to coordinate and understand one another regarding all the current issues.

Earlier in Algeria, he said forging an independent Palestinian state is the only way to peace.

On Thursday, he is due to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hishard-line foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, for the first time since they took office last month.

Netanyahu has not endorsed Palestinian statehood and has yet to unveil his government's policy on peace efforts. Lieberman says pledges by the previous Israeli administration to work for Palestinian independence are no longer relevant.

Mitchell has already met with a number of Arab leaders during the trip in an effort to revive stalled peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

After meeting with Morocco's foreign minister, Taieb Fassi Fihri, Mitchell also reiterated his country's commitment to a two-state solution to the conflict.

"We believe that the two-state solution, two states living side by side in peace, is the best and the only way to resolve this conflict, and we will be pursuing that objective in meetings that I will be having in other countries in the region over the next two weeks," the envoy said in a statement.

He also met with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Tuesday as part of his Middle East tour. Bouteflika welcomed the visit by Mitchell to Algiers, telling the envoy it was "an excellent idea to include North Africa in your consultations."

The pair then and Mitchell then held a closed-door working meeting.

Mitchell's weeklong tour will also bring him to Tunisia, Israel, the Palestinian territories and several other Arab states.

In addition to Netanyahu and Lieberman, he was expected to meet with opposition leader and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and President Shimon Peres.

On Friday he is scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank. Their government, headed by Abbas' Fatah movement, is in control only of the West Bank because their rivals in the militant Hamas group seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Efforts to reconcile those factions have so far failed, adding a serious obstacle to peace efforts.

Speaking to businessmen on Wednesday, Fayyad said Netanyahu's stated preference for concentrating on Palestinian economic growth for now, while putting statehood talks aside for some point in the future, would not bring peace.

"If there is to be any two-state solution to speak of, the Israeli government must take immediate and bold steps toward ending its colonization and occupation of Palestinian territory," Fayyad said.

Visiting Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos said after meeting Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki in Ramallah that the two-state model remains the only option.

Moratinos said he too would meet Netanyahu and Lieberman on Thursday, seeking to learn their intentions.

"I want to listen to them," he told reporters. "The Israeli government is now evaluating its political relationships with the Palestinian government and the international community."

	Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, right, on Tuesday greeting U.S. special envoy to the Mideast George Mitchell, left, in Algiers.
	Photo by: (AP)