The United States renewed appeals for calm in the Middle East, as the State Department announced Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres would visit Washington early next month.
Mr Peres will meet with US Secretary of State Colin Powell during a May 4-5 trip to discuss the deteriorating "situation in the Middle East," department spokesman Richard Boucher said last night.
Another department official said Peres would also see national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and that a meeting with President George W. Bush was possible but not yet on the schedule.
Mr Powell said the first order of business between the Israelis and the Palestinian was to reduce the violence. "I am absolutely convinced until that starts to happen we're not going to be able to make progress in other baskets," he told PBStelevision.
The announcement of the Peres visit followed another deadly weekend of violence in the region including a Sunday suicide bombing which killed an Israeli civilian and the bomber and a bomb attack yesterday southeast of Tel Aviv that wounded at least four people.
AFP