US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell arrived for his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in 18 months today, signalling a new push for Middle East peace following the death of Yasser Arafat.
Mr Powell, who landed in Tel Aviv, was to meet Israeli leaders in Jerusalem and top Palestinians in the West Bank tomorrow for talks on a Palestinian presidential election scheduled for January 9th and a stalled peace plan known as the "road map".
Preparing the ground for Mr Powell's visit, US Middle East envoy Mr William Burns met Palestinian leaders and said Israel should take steps to smooth the way for the ballot to choose a successor to Arafat.
A senior Israeli official said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet would consider requests to pull troops away from West Bank cities, a move Palestinians called crucial to the success of their first election since 1996.
Mr Burns said Washington believed a successful vote and implementation of Israel's planned unilateral pullout from Gaza and parts of the West Bank in 2005 were "important steps" towards carrying out the road map.
Mr Powell's visit follows a pledge by US President George W Bush to capitalise on what he called new opportunities for peace after Arafat's death, who was accused by Washington and Israel of fomenting violence - allegations he had denied.
British and Russian foreign ministers Mr Jack Straw and Mr Sergei Lavrov are due in the region later in the week in a sign of a renewed international effort to revive the road map.
Mr Powell, who announced his resignation last Monday, was to spend less than 24 hours in Israel and the West Bank, en route to a conference on Iraq in the Egyptian Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
He is to be replaced by national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice, who has been on the frontline of the Bush administration's contacts with Sharon and its calls for security and democratic reforms in the Palestinian Authority.