Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Brian Cowen arrived in Cairo this morning to begin a four-day Middle East visit.
He is expected to meet Egyptian President Mr Hosni Mubarak this morning before flying to Tel Aviv this evening.
Over the next three days, Mr Cowen will meet political leaders in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Syria and Lebanon. He is expected to call for the restarting of political talks and a ceasefire sustained by confidence-building measures.
The Minister stressed the need to implement the report of the international committee chaired by Senator Mr George Mitchell. It called for a ceasefire, a halt to the building of settlements by the Israelis and the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation.
"My visit should be seen in the context that the EU has had a strong involvement in the process in recent years, and an increasingly effective one," Mr Cowen said.
"I would be putting the view forward that the Mitchell report is the means by which we get out of this spiralling tit-for-tat violence".
Mr Cowen will be using the visit to assess the situation in preparation for the Irish presidency of the UN Security Council next month.
