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Rice focused on Middle East at Asia summit
By Stephen Collinson
AFP
KUALA LUMPUR
Petroleumworld.com 07 28 06
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was Friday focused on the Middle East crisis during her Asian trip, as the United States warned against a "fake peace" to end Israel-Hezbollah fighting.
Rice returned to her Kuala Lumpur hotel after giving a piano recital at the normally riotous annual gala of East Asian ministers and dialogue partners to discuss the Middle East with her aides, sources said.
She is due to hold a string of one-on-one talks with ministers at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum later Friday.
Her staff declined to say where she would be going after Malaysia and when she would be leaving, though it was understood she would turn her focus again to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
A possible stop was the Middle East, after her earlier trip to Beirut, Jerusalem and the West Bank earlier this week.
Rice, is simultaneously targeting humanitarian aid for Lebanon and hoping to boost efforts to put together a multi-national force for the country, so it was possible she could chose another destination, in Europe for instance.
It was understood that she has been in regular contact with US officials in the Middle East throughout her brief Asian trip.
On Wednesday, she attended an international conference on the Lebanon crisis in Rome, which on Thursday hosted a visit by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
"I have not yet made a determination about my further travel," Rice said on Thursday, amid signs that her plans were fluid.
"I am willing and ready to go back to the Middle East at any time," she said at talks between ASEAN ministers and dialogue partners including Australia, the United States, the European Union and Canada.
The United States has made clear the ultimate deal to end the crisis will be between Israel and Lebanon, and not the Hezbollah 'state within a state'.
Critics however say the crisis will never be solved without direct US talks with Syria and Iran which Washington accuses of sponsoring Hezbollah.
President George W. Bush meanwhile said on Thursday "there is an "urgent need to end the violence. There is also an urgent need for Israel to defend itself."
"The Middle East is littered with agreements that just didn't work," said Bush, adding that he hoped to "end this as quickly as possible and, at the same time, (make) sure there's a lasting peace, not a fake peace."
Earlier an Israeli minister insisted the Rome conference -- at which the United States stood firm against demands for an "immediate" ceasefire -- had endorsed its offensive against Hezbollah.
"Yesterday in Rome we in effect obtained the authorization to continue our operations until Hezbollah is no longer present in southern Lebanon," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told army radio.
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz vowed meanwhile that the Hezbollah militia "will not return to what it was before."
Though Israel Thursday decided to step up its air campaign and call up more reservists, in a conflict that has so far taken over 400 lives, it said it would not expand its ground offensive.
In the Gaza conflict meanwhile, Abbas said in Rome that he believed the Israeli soldier, whose kidnap by militants sparked a dramatic surge in violence in the territory, could soon be released.
The United States maintains there is no chance of an immediate ceasefire, so the world should target a lasting deal which addresses what it sees as the root causes of the fighting -- Hezbollah's arsenal support from Tehran and Damascus.
Critics of the US approach however argue Washington wants to delay a ceasefire to allow its ally Israel to neutralise Hezbollah by military means.
AFP 28 0620 GMT 07 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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