BRUSSELS (EJP)---The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, started Sunday a four-day Mideast tour ahead of the forthcoming peace conference to be held later this month in Annapolis, Maryland. 

Solana will meet Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian leaders “to encourage all parties to work for a successful outcome of the conference and to set in motion a new political dynamic leading to peace, an economic development plan and improvements in the daily lives of the Palestinians and the Israelis,” his office said.

He will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday evening in Cairo. On Monday morning, he will meet President Mubarak of Egypt, Egyptian Foreign Minister Abul Gheit and the Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa.

On Tuesday, the EU official will meet in Ramallah with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Ahmed Ali Mohammed Qurei, chairman of the Palestinian negotiating team, Saeb Eerekat, head of the Palestinian negotiating team and Yasser Abed Rabbo, Secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee.

Solana will also visit in Jericho the EU Police Mission for the Palestinian Territories (EU POL COPPS) as well as the Jericho police training centre where he will be given a presentation on public order training.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will hold separate talks with Solana on Wednesday.

At a meeting last week in Lisbon of the Euro-Mediterranean conference, in the presence of the Israeli and Palestinian Foreign Ministers, Solana praised the "constructive" approach of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the upcoming US-sponsored conference on the Middle East, saying it could help bring peace to the region.

"Olmert yesterday gave a very constructive speech, one of his best in recent times," Solana told reporters. "If that is the spirit with which he is approaching the Middle East peace process, I think we have many chances of having a positive outcome."

The Israeli Prime Minister had declared the day before that he was willing to deal with the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the conference.

"The conference will be the start of a future process ... we will enter into intense and continuous negotiations," he said.

Olmert also said he hoped for the negotiations could be completed before January 2009.

Solana said Europe shared Olmert’s hopes of seeing the peace process bring about results by that date.

Speaking of his Mideast tour, the EU’s foreign policy chief, whose official title is the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, said: "I hope to see for myself what are the chances of success. I think a success is possible.”

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will also visit the region this week for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. France is due to host an international conference of donors to the Palestinian Authority which will take place after the Annapolis conference.