Burns to travel to Middle East

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (AFP) - William Burns, US assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs, will travel Tuesday to the Middle East for talks on furthering the peace process, the state department said here Monday.
Burns, who is currently in Brussels to meet with other diplomatic powers on the crisis, will fly to Egypt, the Palestinian territories and Israel, said State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli.
He said Burns would meet with all parties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Optimisim for a ceasefire has grown since Mahmud Abbas replaced the late Yasser Arafat as Palestinian president.
Burns was meeting Monday with other representatives of the diplomatic "quartet" seeking peace, Ereli said. The group comprises the United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States.

01/24/2005 19:04 GMT - AFP