BRUSSELS (EJP)--- Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) pays a four-day visit to the Middle East this week in order to increase efforts to move the peace process forward.

His tour started in Egypt on Thursday and will include stops Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan.

In Cairo Solana will meet President Hosni Mubarak, foreign minister Abul Gheit and Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the League of Arab States.

He is due in Israel on Friday and Sunday to meet defence minister Amir Peretz, Prime minister Ehud Olmert and foreign minister Tzipi Livni.
In Ramallah, Solana will meet Saturday Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority.

Not the first time

The EU’s foreign policy chief is a frequent visitor to the region.

According to EU diplomats, Solana’s visit was meant to highlight the bloc’s determination to step up its presence in the Middle East and to voice support for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks.

He is expected to reiterate backing for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s efforts to set up a national unity government including his Fatah group and governing Hamas.

EU diplomats said Solana had "not lost hope" that the formation of a new government would be possible, allowing European governments to resume direct contacts with the Palestinian Authority.

Aid stopped

The EU and the US suspended direct aid to the Palestinian government last year following the victory of Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by both the EU and the US. Washington.

European and American officials have said repeatedly that aid will only restart once Hamas recognizes Israel, renounces violence and agrees to abide by past peace treaties, three conditions which the Islamic group has so far refused.

Solana will report on his trip to EU foreign ministers who meet in Brussels on January 22.

On Thursday, after meeting German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin , U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed American backing for a German-led initiative to revive the Middle East Quartet.

The Quartet, which comprises the U.S. , Russia , the United Nations and the European Union, of which Germany currently holds the rotating presidency, is to convene next month in Washington in a renewed effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The time is ripe for the group to revive its work”, Steinmeier said at a press conference.