WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush said Monday he was sending Vice President Dick Cheney to the Middle East to push Israel and the Palestinians to keep their promises under the diplomatic "road-map" to peace.
"His goal is to reassure people that the United States is committed to a vision of peace in the Middle East, that we expect the relevant parties to uphold their obligations under the road map," Bush told reporters.
The vice president -- who leaves March 16 for Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Turkey -- will also pursue US diplomatic efforts to isolate Iran, which Bush numbered among "the threats facing the Middle East."
Cheney will meet with key leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad.
His trip comes amid frenetic US diplomacy to try to hammer out a Middle East peace deal -- or at least agreed-upon guidelines for a Palestinian state -- before Bush leaves office in January 2009.
"I'm optimistic that we'll be able to achieve a vision that shows the way forward, and I'm optimistic that leaders will step forward and do the hard things necessary, so people don't have to live in deprivation and fear," said Bush.
"It's a part of the world where people have heard promises before, and they get vague promises. Now they've got a president and an administration willing to work for two states, two democracies, side by side in peace," he said.
Cheney's trip, which his office said would last one week to 10 days, was to fall under the long shadow of the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq -- March 19, 2003 in Washington and March 20 in Baghdad.
It was not clear whether Cheney, who last year made unannounced stops in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, would go to Iraq.
But "the vice president will be taking a very vocal message to the Middle East that progress in Iraq is necessary for peace in the Middle East," Bush said as he met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Cheney's visit follows a Middle East mission by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who secured a promise from Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks suspended amid a recent escalation in violence.
Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas held their fire around the Gaza Strip on Monday as Egypt worked to broker a comprehensive deal to end violence and lift the blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.
Palestinians said the two sides have made headway towards a truce, but Israel, while stressing the army would not hit Hamas-run Gaza if militants stopped firing rockets, insisted it was not negotiating a ceasefire.
But Jerusalem authorities announced a decision to build a new Jewish settlement in the annexed eastern part of the city, a move that could undermine efforts to revive faltering peace talks.
Bush declined to explicitly condemn the plan, but declared: "We expect both parties involved in the Middle Eastern peace process to adhere to their obligations in the road map, and those obligations are clear."
"Settlement issues and violence issues are part of the road map obligations that neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis are moving fast enough on," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Perino said Cheney would prod Saudi King Abdullah to pressure fellow OPEC members to increase oil output, as the already sputtering US economy faces soaring gasoline prices that will shape the November US presidential elections.
The vice president's stop in Turkey will reaffirm close US ties with its NATO ally, she said.
ok/ddl

03/10/2008 16:45 GMT